...Carlito's Way last night, I am even more inclined to continue to refer to the RIAA as a band of music industry thugs. Way to go nimrods. I hope someone sell you all down the river with knives in your backs. Every last rotten one of you.
Heh. I tend to be pretty free and easy with the f-bombs just because it's part of my personality. I'm a pretty irreverent sort.;P As far as leaving the mail on the server, my thinking is based on the assumption that most Slashdotters run their own mail servers. It's easy to forget that some people don't especially on Slashdot. I know I run my own mail server for the same reasons you point out. Not so much privacy (I have nothing to hide), but more incompetence on the part of old ISPs I've dealt with. No one will ever host my mail again. I've been running an IMAP server since 1999.
OK. I'll try to tone it down for this a bit... If you've got just the Linux kernel installed and even a bash shell with a spare init, how are you going to run something like GIMP or Firefox? Sure, at that point it could be rightly considered an OS, but to "Joe Average" even DOS isn't an "OS" these days. For the purposes that most people use computers nowadays, an OS means kernel+subsystem tools+GUI based shell. And there is no GUI based shell that is called "Linux". There is GNOME, there is KDE, and a few other things on the periphery. But none of them are called Linux and none of them are Linux specific either as they can run on the BSDs and even some commercial NIXes. There are lots of people who argue what is and what isn't an OS, but the problem domain this article is concerned with is GUI desktop apps.
...considering that I run a full set of private networking services for family and friends including Web, Mail, VoIP, Remote applications, Print and File serving, utilizing OpenVPN, I'd say a good deal. NFS works at 768k up, but it would work a hell of a lot better if I had say... 6M up and it was synchronous. This is the way of the future. Everyone will be running their own private services and will rely on public or ISP provided content less and less. For those reasons more bandwidth is prefereable.
...Linux was actually an Operating system. It's not. For the ten millionth time:
Linux is a kernel GNU/Linux is a bundling of the kernel with GNU tools to make an OS distribution (aka "distro) Debian, Redhat, Mandriva, Gentoo, SuSE are all various distros packaged by different companies/projects
The submitter would have been more accurate had he talked about the nameing of various open source projects that get bundled into GNU/Linux distributions. And thus is the whole problem born. Whenever someone applies Windows thinking to *NIX-like open source/free software projects, it's like trying to draw while looking in a rearview mirror with a telescope pointed at a target 500 yards away. Dump the Windows mindset and *NIX-like packages make a LOT more sense than Windows no matter what they're called. (Think about how RedHat hides the names of the packages and provides links for "Web Browser, Mail Program, Word Processor" and the like. I used to be tainted by trying to apply Windows thinking to GNU/Linux when I first converted full time in 1997. All that resulted in was me fighting myself trying to understand something that is completely different. It almost made me quit and go back to Windows thinking the GNU/Linux sucked. But then, a few people just clearly pointed out to me that I needed to drop all my old Windows based assumptions and it all became very easy. Over the years I've learned just how much more flexible and innovative things are in the *NIX world and there is nothing that could pull me back. One of those things is that I'm glad to be rid of name brand associations that are based on nothing more than image rather than real functionality. So people can take the feelings they have about naming of programs and drop them at the door when they come to this side of the computer world because they're not needed.
1. Thunderbird is the best in terms of stability. It's a little feature limited compared to Evolution and KMail. 2. Evolution has the best interface but it's not as stable as Thundernerd and still feature limited compared to KMail 3. Kmail has the best features, and as a subcomponent of Kontact you get a full features PIM like Evolution with far more integration into KDE + New Reader. Too bad about the ugly interface, and slight instability. (More stable than Evolution)
My biggest beef with KMail is mostly in the department of missing options and it's adherence to using the local Sent and Trash folders even if you're using IMAP. That's just fucking stupid. Mail should NEVER leave the mail server for ANY reason EVER.
And I conclude that you're probably a jerk who buys into Ayn Rand. Screw the objectivists. They're all whacked. And learn to lighten up and have some fun while you're at it.
Me: "Can I have, actors who pretend to be politicians in California, Alex"? A: "OK. This well known actor with a ridiculous accent usurped a democratically elected governor at the behest of corporate utility pressures". Me: "Who is Ahnold Schvartzenegger"? A: "Correct"!
HFCS is a pretty nasty substance and this has been known by a lot of us for quite some time. It's nice to see science proving us right. The only issue is that American culture is too stupid these days to pay attention to science (witness the evolution vs. ID debates). But nonetheless it's time to publish this kind of information far and wide. Corporate profits be damned! We're talking about human health here and that comes before ANY fucking worthless shareholder. So spread the word folks. Link to my old JE and get the health revolution rolling! Peace!!
What you fail to realize is that the parties switched identities back in the 60s. And the Republicans inherited all the bigots, male chauvinists and nutjob hillbillies because JFK was nice to black people.
Put me on the top of the list of supposed "terrists" because I oppose everything the jackbooted thug Republicans stand for. Let's see the idiots open a file on me now if they already haven't! Up the rebels!!!
I had similar experiences except I've sworn off Maxtor. Over the course of 10 years, I've had 12 failed drives out of 24. All Maxtor. However, since they happened so far apart, I didn't think too much about it. Now, after further research I can say that it wasn't all Maxtor's fault. Here's what I found:
From 1995-2000 I had about three HD failures. 1 Western Digital, 1 Maxtor and 1 IBM Deathstar (after two weeks of ripping my CDs to it no less).
From 2000-2004 I lived in my first house where I redid the wiring (over a 1.5 year period) and knew everything was clean. My HD failures were few and far between and 3 Maxtor and 1 Western Digital. More than at my previous residence, but in a shorter time span as they all happened within the third year of living there rather than being spread out.
Last year due to circumstances beyond my control my house was bought and I had to move again. I hastily redid all the wiring but was still pretty assured that everything was fine. Only it wasn't. I lost four Maxtor HDs within three months. These are drives that had been fine at the previous house. So I replaced the first three that died with more (larger) Maxtors. They were dead within a week now. (Thank god for LVM in Linux and automated HD backups) I thought, this CAN'T be right.
I exchanged them for Hitachis and found that the system wouldn't boot with all of them in. It would boot if I disconnect the CD-ROM or one of the HDs. I ran on two PSes for a while and then I got a new PS and the system was working again. There was nothing wrong with the PS before...
I had also noticed that light bulbs were dying within three months and sometimes even as little as a month of being put in place. I did some research and found that this could be caused by one of two things: bad grounding, or a bad feed from the pole to the house including the taps at the pole. First I checked my own work and verified that my grounding was right. It was. Then I called the electric company and told them about the light bulb issue. They sent a crew out to check the line and upgrade me to 200 Amp service (which I needed to do anyway).
After the electric company upgraded me, the light bulbs stopped blowing out as frequently and my HD issues stopped. Of course I'm not entirely sure what fixed the problem. Was it the Maxtors that were at fault? Maybe. How come the Hitachi drives survived before I got my power upgrade? Are they better than Maxtor? Maybe. What I suspect happened was this... The line feeding the house (an old 60 amp line) and it's taps were faulty. Not a problem for the previous resident because she only had a TV and some lamps and likely no digital equipment beyond a clock radio. The "dirty power" hosed my PS enough that it wasn't providing anything good to the system. This is probably what zapped those HDs. (I also lost a VCR within a month of living here too) When I replaced the PS, the new PS may have been a bit more resillient and survived the dirty power for long enough to reach the time I got the upgrade done.
Whatever the case, I am still leary of Maxtors since my basement has 12 dying/dead ones sitting in it and no other brands. (Note, I didn't include EVERY HD failure as there were other failures that just seemed to be more a factor of age and usage than a Maxtor issue). So the end result, as much as I love Maxtor's price/size ratio, is that I won't buy Maxtor drives. I don't like WDs for other reasons but I'm trying them again too. I'm not sure I trust Seagate at all and now they're Maxtor anyway... The Hitachis seem good even though they were previously IBM's Deathstar. At this point I don't really trust any of them and am trying to have redundancy integrated into all HD storage I use throughout the house. Ideally a NFS file server will be the way to go for everything...
Yes... but the monitor that I buy today should last at least a decade. So if I'm still using it in 2009 and I want to watch DVD-HD or Blu-Ray or whatever the hell else is DRMed out the wazoo, why should I be forced to buy new hardware to watch current programming at that time? I can understand beyond a decade, but less than that is wastefull and inefficient.
...that people bought yesterday? There's going to be an uprising if people can't watch current content on their monitors due to DRM. The industry should NOT be allowed to just make you HAVE to buy new hardware simply to access current content. That SHOULD be illegal if we had sane regulations that favored the consumer.
I see lots of "free market" capitalists who claim "personal responsibility" and label themselves libertarian even though they have views to the right of Hitler (who was a right winger BTW).
You see there's a lot of proof that evolution is more than "just a theory" and the ID is a steaming smelly crock. Even I can figure that out and I'm no rocket scientist!!! Check it:
1. Alcoholism is a genetic disorder that is passed along through the jeans. 2. Alcoholism is, by and large, seen as an acceptable disorder if the person is somewhat functional. 3. Gender prefrence is passed along genetically through the genes. 4. Homosexuality is, by and large, rejected as a "normal" state of being even if the person is a completely productive member of society.
So what's the problem then? Here's the problem. We can accept that alcoholism is a function of jeans but we can't do the same for gender preference because it would prove evolution. So we need to make sure that we classify gender preference as a choice so it's not affected by the genes. But we can't do that with alcoholism because there's already a large body of work that proves otherwise. This means ID is a crock. QED!
He's not a professor. I also assert that the rest of the world should be modelled on academia because it would raise the intellectual bar. It all comes down to fundamentals:
Viewpoint 1 Q. Why am I here? A. To live and be happy. This is accomplished by doing whatever I need to do to better myself and my life. The effect that I have on others is inconsequential as long as I am happy and alive and comfortable. This is everyone's personal responsibility to themselves. As long as everyone operates in this way everyone is capable of being happy, alive and comfortable. Anyone who is suffering is doing so only because they haven't followed the rules and is none of my concern.
Viewpoint 2 Q. Why am I here? A. To live and be happy. Society should provide systems to keep me alive and happy at a base level. Any society that fails to do so is immoral. Conversely I also have a social responsibility to help build the system that will keep others alive and happy. This is done through properly applied taxes, laws and the oversight of people who are honest and trustworthy to maintain the system.
Between those two extremes is the ugly, harsh reality. In viewpoint 1, the onus is on the individual (capitalism). However, viewpoint 1 conveniently ignores the fact that any individual who is unscrupulous will abuse this system to his advantage. It could be that viewpoint 1 assumes that the abuse is acceptable, but I would argue that it just ignores the fact. A wealthy individual will use his monetary power to prevent others from becoming wealthy in similar means (anti-competitive practices). A physcially strong individual will use his strength to overpower a physically weaker individual if it will benefit him in some way (rape, assault, theft). A technically adept individual will use his intellectual abilities for personal gain (phishing, cracking, etc...). Therefore viewpoint 1 is either flawed (ignoring it's problems) or immoral (accepting the using one's abilities against another is a good thing).
Viewpoint 2 puts the onus on social systems (government funded social programs, non-profit charitable organizations, socialism, communism) to provide for every citizen in equal amounts at a guaranteed quality of life. So far no attempt at this has succeeded which is not to say it's not possible. The main issue with these systems is the same as the one that is putting a hole in capitalist systems: greed, selfishness and dishonesty. In this view the assumption is that every individual is willing to help another with the knowledge that everyone is willing to do the same for them. This is obviosly not the case as illustrated in viewpoint 1. This is the ideal system, but as long as humans have the character flaws of selfishness and greed, NO system will work perfectly. Capitalism is falling apart as witness by the decline of dsitributed wealth in the U.S. and other developed nations. And it is falling apart in the same way that communism did. There is a very small number of people who are in charge of the system and that number is getting smaller. It is no longer possible for someone to easily put out his shingle and "make it" unless he already has a lot of money and power. Anyone who does come up with an idea for a product or service that can make them wealthy has a very small chance of making it to the top as they will be bought out before they get there.
It sounds to me like a lot of people on Slashdot subscribe to viewpoint 1.
I don't get it. I ripped the 4000 CDs in my collection and it was pretty painless. Didn't take more than a year to do and I started with the albums I was interested in. After that point, I never played another CD straight again. I just rip everything I buy.
Slashdot Mirror
...Carlito's Way last night, I am even more inclined to continue to refer to the RIAA as a band of music industry thugs. Way to go nimrods. I hope someone sell you all down the river with knives in your backs. Every last rotten one of you.
Heh. I tend to be pretty free and easy with the f-bombs just because it's part of my personality. I'm a pretty irreverent sort. ;P As far as leaving the mail on the server, my thinking is based on the assumption that most Slashdotters run their own mail servers. It's easy to forget that some people don't especially on Slashdot. I know I run my own mail server for the same reasons you point out. Not so much privacy (I have nothing to hide), but more incompetence on the part of old ISPs I've dealt with. No one will ever host my mail again. I've been running an IMAP server since 1999.
OK. I'll try to tone it down for this a bit... If you've got just the Linux kernel installed and even a bash shell with a spare init, how are you going to run something like GIMP or Firefox? Sure, at that point it could be rightly considered an OS, but to "Joe Average" even DOS isn't an "OS" these days. For the purposes that most people use computers nowadays, an OS means kernel+subsystem tools+GUI based shell. And there is no GUI based shell that is called "Linux". There is GNOME, there is KDE, and a few other things on the periphery. But none of them are called Linux and none of them are Linux specific either as they can run on the BSDs and even some commercial NIXes. There are lots of people who argue what is and what isn't an OS, but the problem domain this article is concerned with is GUI desktop apps.
...considering that I run a full set of private networking services for family and friends including Web, Mail, VoIP, Remote applications, Print and File serving, utilizing OpenVPN, I'd say a good deal. NFS works at 768k up, but it would work a hell of a lot better if I had say... 6M up and it was synchronous. This is the way of the future. Everyone will be running their own private services and will rely on public or ISP provided content less and less. For those reasons more bandwidth is prefereable.
...Linux was actually an Operating system. It's not. For the ten millionth time:
Linux is a kernel
GNU/Linux is a bundling of the kernel with GNU tools to make an OS distribution (aka "distro)
Debian, Redhat, Mandriva, Gentoo, SuSE are all various distros packaged by different companies/projects
The submitter would have been more accurate had he talked about the nameing of various open source projects that get bundled into GNU/Linux distributions. And thus is the whole problem born. Whenever someone applies Windows thinking to *NIX-like open source/free software projects, it's like trying to draw while looking in a rearview mirror with a telescope pointed at a target 500 yards away. Dump the Windows mindset and *NIX-like packages make a LOT more sense than Windows no matter what they're called. (Think about how RedHat hides the names of the packages and provides links for "Web Browser, Mail Program, Word Processor" and the like. I used to be tainted by trying to apply Windows thinking to GNU/Linux when I first converted full time in 1997. All that resulted in was me fighting myself trying to understand something that is completely different. It almost made me quit and go back to Windows thinking the GNU/Linux sucked. But then, a few people just clearly pointed out to me that I needed to drop all my old Windows based assumptions and it all became very easy. Over the years I've learned just how much more flexible and innovative things are in the *NIX world and there is nothing that could pull me back. One of those things is that I'm glad to be rid of name brand associations that are based on nothing more than image rather than real functionality. So people can take the feelings they have about naming of programs and drop them at the door when they come to this side of the computer world because they're not needed.
1. Thunderbird is the best in terms of stability. It's a little feature limited compared to Evolution and KMail.
2. Evolution has the best interface but it's not as stable as Thundernerd and still feature limited compared to KMail
3. Kmail has the best features, and as a subcomponent of Kontact you get a full features PIM like Evolution with far more integration into KDE + New Reader. Too bad about the ugly interface, and slight instability. (More stable than Evolution)
My biggest beef with KMail is mostly in the department of missing options and it's adherence to using the local Sent and Trash folders even if you're using IMAP. That's just fucking stupid. Mail should NEVER leave the mail server for ANY reason EVER.
My $2.00 worth.
And I conclude that you're probably a jerk who buys into Ayn Rand. Screw the objectivists. They're all whacked. And learn to lighten up and have some fun while you're at it.
Here's a clue...
Me: "Can I have, actors who pretend to be politicians in California, Alex"?
A: "OK. This well known actor with a ridiculous accent usurped a democratically elected governor at the behest of corporate utility pressures".
Me: "Who is Ahnold Schvartzenegger"?
A: "Correct"!
I posted in my old account a bit of a summary of how and why I changed my diet. I have to say going on three years now, it has worked out trememndously. I avoid white processed sugar, corn syrup, fructose, white processed flour and yeast and my health has never been better. It really is amazing how much you can change about your body with a few simple changes in your diet. Simple in terms of what they are but maybe hard in terms of habits and tastes. Still, it's 100% worth it.
HFCS is a pretty nasty substance and this has been known by a lot of us for quite some time. It's nice to see science proving us right. The only issue is that American culture is too stupid these days to pay attention to science (witness the evolution vs. ID debates). But nonetheless it's time to publish this kind of information far and wide. Corporate profits be damned! We're talking about human health here and that comes before ANY fucking worthless shareholder. So spread the word folks. Link to my old JE and get the health revolution rolling! Peace!!
He says hiding behind the veil of AC... WHO'S YER DADDY!!! Booyah!!!
What you fail to realize is that the parties switched identities back in the 60s. And the Republicans inherited all the bigots, male chauvinists and nutjob hillbillies because JFK was nice to black people.
...typical AC cowahd!!!! Have to hide behind you mommy Taco.
Poor widdle baby... did you burn yourself on my radiant zinger?
Touched a nerve did I? Fucking Thug...
Put me on the top of the list of supposed "terrists" because I oppose everything the jackbooted thug Republicans stand for. Let's see the idiots open a file on me now if they already haven't! Up the rebels!!!
I had similar experiences except I've sworn off Maxtor. Over the course of 10 years, I've had 12 failed drives out of 24. All Maxtor. However, since they happened so far apart, I didn't think too much about it. Now, after further research I can say that it wasn't all Maxtor's fault. Here's what I found:
From 1995-2000 I had about three HD failures. 1 Western Digital, 1 Maxtor and 1 IBM Deathstar (after two weeks of ripping my CDs to it no less).
From 2000-2004 I lived in my first house where I redid the wiring (over a 1.5 year period) and knew everything was clean. My HD failures were few and far between and 3 Maxtor and 1 Western Digital. More than at my previous residence, but in a shorter time span as they all happened within the third year of living there rather than being spread out.
Last year due to circumstances beyond my control my house was bought and I had to move again. I hastily redid all the wiring but was still pretty assured that everything was fine. Only it wasn't. I lost four Maxtor HDs within three months. These are drives that had been fine at the previous house. So I replaced the first three that died with more (larger) Maxtors. They were dead within a week now. (Thank god for LVM in Linux and automated HD backups) I thought, this CAN'T be right.
I exchanged them for Hitachis and found that the system wouldn't boot with all of them in. It would boot if I disconnect the CD-ROM or one of the HDs. I ran on two PSes for a while and then I got a new PS and the system was working again. There was nothing wrong with the PS before...
I had also noticed that light bulbs were dying within three months and sometimes even as little as a month of being put in place. I did some research and found that this could be caused by one of two things: bad grounding, or a bad feed from the pole to the house including the taps at the pole. First I checked my own work and verified that my grounding was right. It was. Then I called the electric company and told them about the light bulb issue. They sent a crew out to check the line and upgrade me to 200 Amp service (which I needed to do anyway).
After the electric company upgraded me, the light bulbs stopped blowing out as frequently and my HD issues stopped. Of course I'm not entirely sure what fixed the problem. Was it the Maxtors that were at fault? Maybe. How come the Hitachi drives survived before I got my power upgrade? Are they better than Maxtor? Maybe. What I suspect happened was this... The line feeding the house (an old 60 amp line) and it's taps were faulty. Not a problem for the previous resident because she only had a TV and some lamps and likely no digital equipment beyond a clock radio. The "dirty power" hosed my PS enough that it wasn't providing anything good to the system. This is probably what zapped those HDs. (I also lost a VCR within a month of living here too) When I replaced the PS, the new PS may have been a bit more resillient and survived the dirty power for long enough to reach the time I got the upgrade done.
Whatever the case, I am still leary of Maxtors since my basement has 12 dying/dead ones sitting in it and no other brands. (Note, I didn't include EVERY HD failure as there were other failures that just seemed to be more a factor of age and usage than a Maxtor issue). So the end result, as much as I love Maxtor's price/size ratio, is that I won't buy Maxtor drives. I don't like WDs for other reasons but I'm trying them again too. I'm not sure I trust Seagate at all and now they're Maxtor anyway... The Hitachis seem good even though they were previously IBM's Deathstar. At this point I don't really trust any of them and am trying to have redundancy integrated into all HD storage I use throughout the house. Ideally a NFS file server will be the way to go for everything...
Yes... but the monitor that I buy today should last at least a decade. So if I'm still using it in 2009 and I want to watch DVD-HD or Blu-Ray or whatever the hell else is DRMed out the wazoo, why should I be forced to buy new hardware to watch current programming at that time? I can understand beyond a decade, but less than that is wastefull and inefficient.
...that people bought yesterday? There's going to be an uprising if people can't watch current content on their monitors due to DRM. The industry should NOT be allowed to just make you HAVE to buy new hardware simply to access current content. That SHOULD be illegal if we had sane regulations that favored the consumer.
I see lots of "free market" capitalists who claim "personal responsibility" and label themselves libertarian even though they have views to the right of Hitler (who was a right winger BTW).
You see there's a lot of proof that evolution is more than "just a theory" and the ID is a steaming smelly crock. Even I can figure that out and I'm no rocket scientist!!! Check it:
1. Alcoholism is a genetic disorder that is passed along through the jeans.
2. Alcoholism is, by and large, seen as an acceptable disorder if the person is somewhat functional.
3. Gender prefrence is passed along genetically through the genes.
4. Homosexuality is, by and large, rejected as a "normal" state of being even if the person is a completely productive member of society.
So what's the problem then? Here's the problem. We can accept that alcoholism is a function of jeans but we can't do the same for gender preference because it would prove evolution. So we need to make sure that we classify gender preference as a choice so it's not affected by the genes. But we can't do that with alcoholism because there's already a large body of work that proves otherwise. This means ID is a crock. QED!
Why don't you get Groening for a Slashdot interview?? Then we'd have the inevitable "I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter" posts for a month.
We apparently haven't met the same people on Slashdot.
He's not a professor. I also assert that the rest of the world should be modelled on academia because it would raise the intellectual bar. It all comes down to fundamentals:
Viewpoint 1
Q. Why am I here?
A. To live and be happy. This is accomplished by doing whatever I need to do to better myself and my life. The effect that I have on others is inconsequential as long as I am happy and alive and comfortable. This is everyone's personal responsibility to themselves. As long as everyone operates in this way everyone is capable of being happy, alive and comfortable. Anyone who is suffering is doing so only because they haven't followed the rules and is none of my concern.
Viewpoint 2
Q. Why am I here?
A. To live and be happy. Society should provide systems to keep me alive and happy at a base level. Any society that fails to do so is immoral. Conversely I also have a social responsibility to help build the system that will keep others alive and happy. This is done through properly applied taxes, laws and the oversight of people who are honest and trustworthy to maintain the system.
Between those two extremes is the ugly, harsh reality. In viewpoint 1, the onus is on the individual (capitalism). However, viewpoint 1 conveniently ignores the fact that any individual who is unscrupulous will abuse this system to his advantage. It could be that viewpoint 1 assumes that the abuse is acceptable, but I would argue that it just ignores the fact. A wealthy individual will use his monetary power to prevent others from becoming wealthy in similar means (anti-competitive practices). A physcially strong individual will use his strength to overpower a physically weaker individual if it will benefit him in some way (rape, assault, theft). A technically adept individual will use his intellectual abilities for personal gain (phishing, cracking, etc...). Therefore viewpoint 1 is either flawed (ignoring it's problems) or immoral (accepting the using one's abilities against another is a good thing).
Viewpoint 2 puts the onus on social systems (government funded social programs, non-profit charitable organizations, socialism, communism) to provide for every citizen in equal amounts at a guaranteed quality of life. So far no attempt at this has succeeded which is not to say it's not possible. The main issue with these systems is the same as the one that is putting a hole in capitalist systems: greed, selfishness and dishonesty. In this view the assumption is that every individual is willing to help another with the knowledge that everyone is willing to do the same for them. This is obviosly not the case as illustrated in viewpoint 1. This is the ideal system, but as long as humans have the character flaws of selfishness and greed, NO system will work perfectly. Capitalism is falling apart as witness by the decline of dsitributed wealth in the U.S. and other developed nations. And it is falling apart in the same way that communism did. There is a very small number of people who are in charge of the system and that number is getting smaller. It is no longer possible for someone to easily put out his shingle and "make it" unless he already has a lot of money and power. Anyone who does come up with an idea for a product or service that can make them wealthy has a very small chance of making it to the top as they will be bought out before they get there.
It sounds to me like a lot of people on Slashdot subscribe to viewpoint 1.
I don't get it. I ripped the 4000 CDs in my collection and it was pretty painless. Didn't take more than a year to do and I started with the albums I was interested in. After that point, I never played another CD straight again. I just rip everything I buy.
As the even older saying goes... the man who has socks in the morning is the one who left the door closed in the winter time.