...how many Linux and Mac users do you think you'll find among the flood victims that are most in need of assistance? I can see Firefox users and maybe the oddball Opera user, but that's about it. The FEMA site is likely not employing the most technically adept people to manage their site. They're either outsourcing it to people who use the simplest tools (FrontPage, ColdFusion, etc...) or their in-people are paid low enough that they can't hire enough talent to actually understand how to code for cross-platform compatibility. No matter. This SHOULDN'T be an issue right now because Katrina victims need to be getting help no matter how. Another example... Even though Walmart is the scourge of the Earth, it would probably be stupid of me to turn my nose up at the water they were going to supply if I was a Katrina victim in New Orleans. Can you picture this: "I haven't had clean water to drink in 38 hours, but I'll be damned if I drink water from Walmart just on the principle of the whole thing". How stupid is that? Same thing here with the IE requirement. Pick your battles folks.
I think part of what this guy is also complaining about is the large part of the user base that DOESN'T get addressed by modern HCI: the advanced user. Sure, we aren't necessarily the majority of the user base, but we shouldn't be left to perform brain surgery with a pair of safety scissors either. A term I came up with a few years back when I used to be a Windows NT administrator, was the counterpart to "user friendly": "Admin Hostile". This is what today's UIs really are. They make the assumption that you are stupid and don't know what you are doing and then hobble your ability to really do much useful (ie. dangerous).
That's why a lot of us wind up going back to CLI because at least there (with the notable exception of CMD in Windows) you can get some really strong control over what your system does at nearly every level. The complexity can be made as intricate or as simple as you want it. I find myself preferring to use CLI in *nix for file management more often than the GUI because it's FASTER. But you wouldn't catch me dead using CMD in Windows to do the same thing. In Windows, Explorer (I hate file manager) is the best option since the CMD file tools are very limited.
However, I think the real answer lies in a compromise between stupid GUIs and byzantine CLIs. For example. Last night, I needed to rename some files on my Linux box that had spaces in the name. This means I've got to put double quotes around the file name. I could also fire up Nautilus and just rename them there. But why not compromise? Why can't I, for example, click hold my right mouse button and double-click my left on the file's name in a terminal window and get a GUI like cursor to rename a file the same way that I would in Nautilus? Why should I need to switch back to GUI from CLI? THAT is a failing on ANY platform.
The fact is that there are a lot of us who have no trouble remembering slightly more complex steps to manipulate our machines. Why not develop UI features that cater to us? We'd be far more productive. Personally, I've always felt that the UI of any system should have three well defined levels: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. Each of those levels should be able to spur the user towards the next level based on how well they can navigate within a level. I should be able to go to an Advanced level and get features like the one I mentioned above. The beginner should be able to sit down and have a very simple experience with very few items to memorize. But it won't happen since GUI folks are disconnected from CLI folks and vice-versa. There are very few people who excel at both. I do, but that's a different story...
Back when I first got my Windows 3.1 box in 1994, I installed Norton Desktop for Windows (NDFW) to escape the ugliness that was Program Manager. One of the things that NDFW had was a really nice screensaver package for the day (not as nice as AfterDark, but better than the Windows 3.1 defaults). One of the REALLY nice features (which I believe was lifted from AfterDark) was the hotspot corners. You could push your mouse all the way to one corner and click to trigger the screensaver now. You could push it to the other corner to keep it from launching at all for those times when you don't want the screen saver activating. You could push it to still another corner and cycle through the screensavers by clicking repeatedly in order to set your default screensaver. I'm kind of surprised that Xscreensaver doesn't do this at this point. There really aren't many other uses for the four corners though...
That's right Jim! A lot of people might call foul on the whole thing, but that's really the way it is and I've never seen a clearer illustration of that than this. If anyone has any better analogies, they can go ahead and search the world over, but I guaran-damn-tee you that they won't be finding much of anything unless they open their eyes and find what's right in front of them. The problem is that a lot of people don't like acknowledging the truth even when it's beating them over the head with the proverbial steam iron. What you've stated hear puts the points on the table cleanly and concisely and leaves little room for argument because there really isn't one to argue. And afterall, bus driving and coding is the toy department of life!
That's my point exactly. The grandparent post seems to have some clue about just how complex these kinds of changes can be and why you can't just point and click your way to a new website with FrontPage or SharePoint Portal. At best, you might get a generic mockup of what a real site should look like using those tools. But the fact is that it it's not custom coding, it's never going to fulfill your business needs. That's why projects like Slashcode and Wiki are so important. They are much more flexible than anything you'll ever see coming out of Redmond.
Don't pay attention to him. He obviously doesn't have a clue about how capitalism works. All his hand wringing here and elsewhere on Slashdot about how capitalism is failing is just pure FUD. The fact is that he hates to see good people win. All of this kind of "level the playing field" talk is just a poorly concealed attempt to try and get people to agree to communism. The less attention paid to him the better.
Shut up hippy. Just because you couldn't hack it in the corporate world doesn't mean you should try to build systems to make them fail. You are the one that failed. I assume your still living in your parent's basement. Right? Well, here's how it works:
1. You clean up 2. You get a job 3. You prove your worth to your employer 4. You work your way up to CEO 5. You live happily ever after
That's just the way it is. That's what my grandfather did and it's why I haven't had to deal with the things you do. Sorry your grandfather was a failure and probably your grandfather too. It's time for you to buck up and break the cycle. Everyone has the ability to make it. Just make sure you work really hard and make all possible sacrifices for your employer and you should eventually make it. It's all up to you.
This is the GPL that SHOULD be tried in court. It's about time that a stop is put to the abuse of the patent system by greedy corporations. They don't have right to profit. It's a privelege and one they should have lost long ago.
Before you start criticizing people who do this stuff for a living, why don't you wake up and smell the coffee? In case you're not aware, there have been a lot of developments in content management systems since Slashcode was created. A lot of the innovation (thanks to Sharepoint Portal and Frontpage) has happened on the Windows platform where completely overhauling a site is something that can be accomplished in minutes by any decent Windows admin. Hell. You don't even need coders, or HTML designers. All you need is to train your network admin on the use of FrontPage and provide him with a decent media library to choose looks and feels from. But, since you and your buddies here are stuck in the bad old days where everything is tweaked in a text based config file, you've got to make a big deal out of this switch to CSS and claim that it's a big event. It's not and it shouldn't be treated as such. It's just another document and if you really know what you're doing, you'll be able to make the changes from within MS Word. The key is to cut non-essential staff (all Unix admins are non-essential these days). But you keep trying to drag us back to 1970. We'll get you eventually. It's only a matter of time.
Is this in response to that big story last year where someone actually redid Slashdot's main page in CSS to show just how easy it would be to do? Kind of funny in a way because people who usually want to prove how easy something is to accomplish have no idea of just how much glue sits behind the scenes. That's usually what makes these kinds of changes so difficult and fraught with rendering errors, coding slips and the like. Even moreso when you only have a handful of decent people working on the system and a ton of mediocre people making up the majority of the development team. When it comes to systems this big and complicated, it's a wonder they work at all. So who will be making these CSS changes?
OK. I know some people will claim I've already lost the argument before it started, but... "Seig Heil" there buddy. So when is YOUR president going to start passing out the brown shirts and arm bands? I don't know what country you grew up in, but I grew up int he United States of America. This was a place where I could be sure that my government, although not perfect, was at least looking out for my best interests and safety. For one thing, I dont't know what school you went to but it has NEVER been illegal to criticize the president. It might surprise you to know that public records are... GASP! PUBLIC! That means that any memeber of the public should be able to access them. No questions, no games, just free access to that information.
What you propose is a nightmarish dystopia. And we're sadly moving closer every day. Just to point out that it was OUR Bush administration that cut the communication lines to New Orleans over the weekend. I wonder why they did that? Probably to have free reign to do whatever they want there with no oversight. That's what closed document formats with DRM will enable. Sounds like you need a history lesson and if you have your way, you're going to get one. The hard way.
OH PLEASE! The guy who wrote Speach Freely took it offline BECAUSE of national security. He knew that his program cold be used by terror cells and is even publically quoted as having regretted ever inventing cryptography in the first place. I think your real problem is that you don't like the fact that newer is always better and Skype is certainly newer. It's doing really well in grabbing mindshare and there is nothing that anyone can do about it. Face it, the days of free phonecalls are here to stay. Time for the phone companies to find new business models to stay competitive. My John Dvorak emulation engine sez, "We want our free phone calls!!! And Skype has delivered. Kudos to the Skype folks who saw an opportunity and stuck while the iron was hot. Say what you want to say about free phone calls, but I'm impressed. I used Skype the other day to phone my cousin in Baltimore and while it isn't quite up to par with my land line, it's at least equivalent to my cell if not better". You heard it here first folks!
It's nice that a lot of people have decided to come to the internet telephony game ten years late. I've been using the now defunct "Speak Freely" software for encrypted voice communication since the mid-90s. This program is easy to use, very reliable and has decent quality sound. I used to use it on dial-up with some lag occasionally, but with DSL and cable, it's flawless. Now we've got latecomers inventing needless protocols like SIP acting like they had the idea first. And to make matters worse, they are extending this functionality to the average luser. Can you imagine an internet flooded with teenaged girls exchanging "he said/she said" stories, grannies exchanging recipes and terrorists making planned meetings without any traceability whatsoever? It's a nightmare. At least there was some security with SpeakFreely since it was so hard to use. But this Skype thing just scares the piss out of me. You technology folks really need to get a grasp on reality.
What the hell are you thinking? Government documents should never be accessible to the average person. There are a lot of things that need to be done for government to function that the average person has no business being aware of.
Proprietary document formats with DRM are a bad thing for public record.
I think you meant to say that public documents cry out for proprietary DRM. How else do you expect our government to function properly if every Tom, Dick and Hairy has access to private public records? They're called private for a REASON. Microsoft's DRM ensures that not just anyone can peruse private public records. And even moreso, they can't be leaked. I'd like to see private public documents biometrically sealed so that only the people who need to see them can access them. I also think it should be made a law to put people in jail when they try to access public records unless they are politicians. The liberal press should have no access to that kind of sensitive documentation whatsoever because they'll spin it to their advantage instead of just being good citizens. Considering that criticizing the president has always been a crime worthy of being called treason, I think we could just add to that law, that normal people have no business looking at private public records. I don't know where you get your ideas, but you sound like a dangerous person and if I knew who you were, I'd report you to Homeland Security.
Oh dear. Here we go again. Some libertarian/hippy who needs a bath and a job voices his outmodded opinions on Slashdot thinking that someone cares. Here's a clue: NOBODY CARES WHAT YOU THINK. The fact is that MS Office documents are superior because a lot of us live in the 21st century (I'd argue I should have been born in the 22nd century because a lot of today's technology is stuff I dreamt up in second grade back in the 70s).
Microsoft has designed formats that are luxuriously designed. They are made to hold a wealth of information and integrate into each other in such intricate ways that Gaudi would weep. But you backwards looking lunix users want to hold the rest of the world back because you can't keep up with today's technology.
I'm sorry, but today's typical e-mail servers should be able to easily accommodate quarter gig messages. This is the 21st century and data is rich. If a user can embed video in an Outlook document, a Word document, a Spreadsheet or what have you, they should be able to and it shouldn't be treated as odd or bad.
The digital rights management in MS documents is also the perfect way for governments to protect their intellectual property. The so-called whistle blowers you seem to fellate are TREASONOUS BASTARDS. They should be working to support what their government is doing and instead they're playing double agent games. If I found one in my supervision, I'd have him fired on the spot and then arrested under some kind of Homeland Security charge. I'm sure there's a provision for treason like leaking documents in there somewhere.
So hippy, why don't you get a haircut a shave and a bath, then go look for a job down at your local McDonald's or Walmart. You can then do what every good American does and work your way up from the mail room. That's what my grandfather did and that's why I'm an executive today.
We're talking about public record here. Considering Microsoft's dismal track record with DRM and wanting to control data that they have no business controlling, do you really want public records in their document formats? One of the things that Microsoft has been touting is the ability for their documents to have access lists and be traceable. This is really bad news for whistle blowers in the public sector. How else do you leak documents that SHOULD be leaked? In case anyone has forgotten, it's your government. They are YOUR servants, not your masters.
This should be a federal initiative. If our feds weren't so in bed with corporate America, this would be a no brainer. Proprietary document formats with DRM are a bad thing for public record. Don't even mention the fact that with each revision Microsoft has a tendency to break documents in older formats in new and horrendous ways. The idea of having embedded resources beyond text is also monumentally stupid. Embedding URLs for various resources that may shift or wind up being dead later is stupid. Embedding video and sound clips while "neat" stops working unless the media clip is actually made a part of the document. Most users aren't smart enough to do that, so the embedded clip stops working when the document and the media clip are separated. And in the event that the user DOES actually know how to embed the clip properly, then you wind up with a 250 Meg word document that's really nice to try and send via e-mail.
If government moved to an open document format and only kept the most important information (most government business is better conducted via text) in text with limited use of graphics and a complete ban on media clips, we'd be better off in the long run. As a sidenote, if a document seems to "need" media clips, then your not doing your job, or maybe you've been tasked with something that should have gone to PR and a proper media production outfit. My money is on the former in 99.9% of the cases.
Actually... that's part of it's appeal. No matter how strong their resolve, they will always fail since reality does not support them. At that point it's immensely entertaining to watch people struggle so vigorously to assert their positions while you throw out the occassional comment that takes little effort by comparison. Oh wait... that's called TROLLING! (Happy Troll Tuseday!;P )
Thank you for lowering my hopes for human survival beyond the early 21st century. Man! And I thought Yafro was bad. I wonder how long it will be before all the attention starved Yafro folks move to Vobbo? Terrifying.
I've been trying to make a decision as to which open source SQL database to go with for use with the DBMail server that I plan on installing here at home. Considering that I couldn't give a rat's ass about web applications (which DBMail is not), it seems like PostgreSQL is the answer. And with the right optimizations, it's likely to be nearly as good a performer as MySQL. Fuck SCO and anyone who choses to work with them.
I've always read that to mean "Stuff that matters to nerds". Nerds have no business being involved or interested in politics. The last person you want in office is a nerd. An engineer? Yes. A doctor or biologist? Absolutely! A nerd? Never.
Hmmm... So are you suggesting that Broadway should go the way of the dinosaur? Why not the way of Classical Music. Broadway was at least as important as Bach in the develompent of culture. Considering that one of it's offsprings (The Music Video) is still doing quite well world wide. No. Not a dinosaur. A classic that deserves some level of respect. (Heh. And I HATE musicals)
Actually you all appear to have missed the point. The question that the person who submitted the story asked was if both sides could be partially right (specifically in this case CNN vs. the BBC). This is not possible if both sides are completely contrary to each other's positions. It doesn't matter if we're talking about global warming or the ozone hole. The real question that needed to be asked was, "Who is lying and who is telling the truth"? Or at the very least, who is closer to the truth? After pointing that out, I then pointed out the reason that you really can't trust a lot of the media since they all have their reasons for skewing facts in a way that favors their parent companies. I don't see how anything that anyone has harangued me for here addresses what I brought up. Reread the parent.
This has nothing to do with science and everything to do with bias in media. The real question is who is lying and who is telling the truth? My money is on the folks who say global warming is happening because they have quantifiable data to back their claims up. The people who are opposed to those findings have yet to produce reliable proof. But getting back to the question at hand, where does the bias come from? The news media corporations have many companies behind them. And those companies have investors backing them financially expecting a return on their investment. And not just a reasonable return, but unrealistic expectations. This drives those parent companies to cover their asses every which way as long as whatever they are doing makes a profit. They could be putting newborn babies in crash test simulators and if there was a tidy profit to be made from it, they'd do it and then try to hide the fact that they're doing it. Meanwhile, the media companies that they control aren't going to leak a word of the story because the parent company could shoot them down permanently. It's gotten out of hand and I suggest that some people at the tops of many corporations need to be handled in the way that Pat Robertson suggested that Hugo Chavez be handled.;P Seriously. All the investors need to put down the crack pipes and realize that they are indirectly responsible for a lot of really rotten things. Don't just bury your head in the sand. Accept the fucking responsibility.
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...how many Linux and Mac users do you think you'll find among the flood victims that are most in need of assistance? I can see Firefox users and maybe the oddball Opera user, but that's about it. The FEMA site is likely not employing the most technically adept people to manage their site. They're either outsourcing it to people who use the simplest tools (FrontPage, ColdFusion, etc...) or their in-people are paid low enough that they can't hire enough talent to actually understand how to code for cross-platform compatibility. No matter. This SHOULDN'T be an issue right now because Katrina victims need to be getting help no matter how. Another example... Even though Walmart is the scourge of the Earth, it would probably be stupid of me to turn my nose up at the water they were going to supply if I was a Katrina victim in New Orleans. Can you picture this: "I haven't had clean water to drink in 38 hours, but I'll be damned if I drink water from Walmart just on the principle of the whole thing". How stupid is that? Same thing here with the IE requirement. Pick your battles folks.
I think part of what this guy is also complaining about is the large part of the user base that DOESN'T get addressed by modern HCI: the advanced user. Sure, we aren't necessarily the majority of the user base, but we shouldn't be left to perform brain surgery with a pair of safety scissors either. A term I came up with a few years back when I used to be a Windows NT administrator, was the counterpart to "user friendly": "Admin Hostile". This is what today's UIs really are. They make the assumption that you are stupid and don't know what you are doing and then hobble your ability to really do much useful (ie. dangerous).
That's why a lot of us wind up going back to CLI because at least there (with the notable exception of CMD in Windows) you can get some really strong control over what your system does at nearly every level. The complexity can be made as intricate or as simple as you want it. I find myself preferring to use CLI in *nix for file management more often than the GUI because it's FASTER. But you wouldn't catch me dead using CMD in Windows to do the same thing. In Windows, Explorer (I hate file manager) is the best option since the CMD file tools are very limited.
However, I think the real answer lies in a compromise between stupid GUIs and byzantine CLIs. For example. Last night, I needed to rename some files on my Linux box that had spaces in the name. This means I've got to put double quotes around the file name. I could also fire up Nautilus and just rename them there. But why not compromise? Why can't I, for example, click hold my right mouse button and double-click my left on the file's name in a terminal window and get a GUI like cursor to rename a file the same way that I would in Nautilus? Why should I need to switch back to GUI from CLI? THAT is a failing on ANY platform.
The fact is that there are a lot of us who have no trouble remembering slightly more complex steps to manipulate our machines. Why not develop UI features that cater to us? We'd be far more productive. Personally, I've always felt that the UI of any system should have three well defined levels: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. Each of those levels should be able to spur the user towards the next level based on how well they can navigate within a level. I should be able to go to an Advanced level and get features like the one I mentioned above. The beginner should be able to sit down and have a very simple experience with very few items to memorize. But it won't happen since GUI folks are disconnected from CLI folks and vice-versa. There are very few people who excel at both. I do, but that's a different story...
Back when I first got my Windows 3.1 box in 1994, I installed Norton Desktop for Windows (NDFW) to escape the ugliness that was Program Manager. One of the things that NDFW had was a really nice screensaver package for the day (not as nice as AfterDark, but better than the Windows 3.1 defaults). One of the REALLY nice features (which I believe was lifted from AfterDark) was the hotspot corners. You could push your mouse all the way to one corner and click to trigger the screensaver now. You could push it to the other corner to keep it from launching at all for those times when you don't want the screen saver activating. You could push it to still another corner and cycle through the screensavers by clicking repeatedly in order to set your default screensaver. I'm kind of surprised that Xscreensaver doesn't do this at this point. There really aren't many other uses for the four corners though...
That's right Jim! A lot of people might call foul on the whole thing, but that's really the way it is and I've never seen a clearer illustration of that than this. If anyone has any better analogies, they can go ahead and search the world over, but I guaran-damn-tee you that they won't be finding much of anything unless they open their eyes and find what's right in front of them. The problem is that a lot of people don't like acknowledging the truth even when it's beating them over the head with the proverbial steam iron. What you've stated hear puts the points on the table cleanly and concisely and leaves little room for argument because there really isn't one to argue. And afterall, bus driving and coding is the toy department of life!
That's my point exactly. The grandparent post seems to have some clue about just how complex these kinds of changes can be and why you can't just point and click your way to a new website with FrontPage or SharePoint Portal. At best, you might get a generic mockup of what a real site should look like using those tools. But the fact is that it it's not custom coding, it's never going to fulfill your business needs. That's why projects like Slashcode and Wiki are so important. They are much more flexible than anything you'll ever see coming out of Redmond.
Don't pay attention to him. He obviously doesn't have a clue about how capitalism works. All his hand wringing here and elsewhere on Slashdot about how capitalism is failing is just pure FUD. The fact is that he hates to see good people win. All of this kind of "level the playing field" talk is just a poorly concealed attempt to try and get people to agree to communism. The less attention paid to him the better.
Shut up hippy. Just because you couldn't hack it in the corporate world doesn't mean you should try to build systems to make them fail. You are the one that failed. I assume your still living in your parent's basement. Right? Well, here's how it works:
1. You clean up
2. You get a job
3. You prove your worth to your employer
4. You work your way up to CEO
5. You live happily ever after
That's just the way it is. That's what my grandfather did and it's why I haven't had to deal with the things you do. Sorry your grandfather was a failure and probably your grandfather too. It's time for you to buck up and break the cycle. Everyone has the ability to make it. Just make sure you work really hard and make all possible sacrifices for your employer and you should eventually make it. It's all up to you.
This is the GPL that SHOULD be tried in court. It's about time that a stop is put to the abuse of the patent system by greedy corporations. They don't have right to profit. It's a privelege and one they should have lost long ago.
Before you start criticizing people who do this stuff for a living, why don't you wake up and smell the coffee? In case you're not aware, there have been a lot of developments in content management systems since Slashcode was created. A lot of the innovation (thanks to Sharepoint Portal and Frontpage) has happened on the Windows platform where completely overhauling a site is something that can be accomplished in minutes by any decent Windows admin. Hell. You don't even need coders, or HTML designers. All you need is to train your network admin on the use of FrontPage and provide him with a decent media library to choose looks and feels from. But, since you and your buddies here are stuck in the bad old days where everything is tweaked in a text based config file, you've got to make a big deal out of this switch to CSS and claim that it's a big event. It's not and it shouldn't be treated as such. It's just another document and if you really know what you're doing, you'll be able to make the changes from within MS Word. The key is to cut non-essential staff (all Unix admins are non-essential these days). But you keep trying to drag us back to 1970. We'll get you eventually. It's only a matter of time.
Is this in response to that big story last year where someone actually redid Slashdot's main page in CSS to show just how easy it would be to do? Kind of funny in a way because people who usually want to prove how easy something is to accomplish have no idea of just how much glue sits behind the scenes. That's usually what makes these kinds of changes so difficult and fraught with rendering errors, coding slips and the like. Even moreso when you only have a handful of decent people working on the system and a ton of mediocre people making up the majority of the development team. When it comes to systems this big and complicated, it's a wonder they work at all. So who will be making these CSS changes?
OK. I know some people will claim I've already lost the argument before it started, but... "Seig Heil" there buddy. So when is YOUR president going to start passing out the brown shirts and arm bands? I don't know what country you grew up in, but I grew up int he United States of America. This was a place where I could be sure that my government, although not perfect, was at least looking out for my best interests and safety. For one thing, I dont't know what school you went to but it has NEVER been illegal to criticize the president. It might surprise you to know that public records are... GASP! PUBLIC! That means that any memeber of the public should be able to access them. No questions, no games, just free access to that information.
What you propose is a nightmarish dystopia. And we're sadly moving closer every day. Just to point out that it was OUR Bush administration that cut the communication lines to New Orleans over the weekend. I wonder why they did that? Probably to have free reign to do whatever they want there with no oversight. That's what closed document formats with DRM will enable. Sounds like you need a history lesson and if you have your way, you're going to get one. The hard way.
OH PLEASE! The guy who wrote Speach Freely took it offline BECAUSE of national security. He knew that his program cold be used by terror cells and is even publically quoted as having regretted ever inventing cryptography in the first place. I think your real problem is that you don't like the fact that newer is always better and Skype is certainly newer. It's doing really well in grabbing mindshare and there is nothing that anyone can do about it. Face it, the days of free phonecalls are here to stay. Time for the phone companies to find new business models to stay competitive. My John Dvorak emulation engine sez, "We want our free phone calls!!! And Skype has delivered. Kudos to the Skype folks who saw an opportunity and stuck while the iron was hot. Say what you want to say about free phone calls, but I'm impressed. I used Skype the other day to phone my cousin in Baltimore and while it isn't quite up to par with my land line, it's at least equivalent to my cell if not better". You heard it here first folks!
It's nice that a lot of people have decided to come to the internet telephony game ten years late. I've been using the now defunct "Speak Freely" software for encrypted voice communication since the mid-90s. This program is easy to use, very reliable and has decent quality sound. I used to use it on dial-up with some lag occasionally, but with DSL and cable, it's flawless. Now we've got latecomers inventing needless protocols like SIP acting like they had the idea first. And to make matters worse, they are extending this functionality to the average luser. Can you imagine an internet flooded with teenaged girls exchanging "he said/she said" stories, grannies exchanging recipes and terrorists making planned meetings without any traceability whatsoever? It's a nightmare. At least there was some security with SpeakFreely since it was so hard to use. But this Skype thing just scares the piss out of me. You technology folks really need to get a grasp on reality.
Proprietary document formats with DRM are a bad thing for public record.
I think you meant to say that public documents cry out for proprietary DRM. How else do you expect our government to function properly if every Tom, Dick and Hairy has access to private public records? They're called private for a REASON. Microsoft's DRM ensures that not just anyone can peruse private public records. And even moreso, they can't be leaked. I'd like to see private public documents biometrically sealed so that only the people who need to see them can access them. I also think it should be made a law to put people in jail when they try to access public records unless they are politicians. The liberal press should have no access to that kind of sensitive documentation whatsoever because they'll spin it to their advantage instead of just being good citizens. Considering that criticizing the president has always been a crime worthy of being called treason, I think we could just add to that law, that normal people have no business looking at private public records. I don't know where you get your ideas, but you sound like a dangerous person and if I knew who you were, I'd report you to Homeland Security.
Oh dear. Here we go again. Some libertarian/hippy who needs a bath and a job voices his outmodded opinions on Slashdot thinking that someone cares. Here's a clue: NOBODY CARES WHAT YOU THINK. The fact is that MS Office documents are superior because a lot of us live in the 21st century (I'd argue I should have been born in the 22nd century because a lot of today's technology is stuff I dreamt up in second grade back in the 70s).
Microsoft has designed formats that are luxuriously designed. They are made to hold a wealth of information and integrate into each other in such intricate ways that Gaudi would weep. But you backwards looking lunix users want to hold the rest of the world back because you can't keep up with today's technology.
I'm sorry, but today's typical e-mail servers should be able to easily accommodate quarter gig messages. This is the 21st century and data is rich. If a user can embed video in an Outlook document, a Word document, a Spreadsheet or what have you, they should be able to and it shouldn't be treated as odd or bad.
The digital rights management in MS documents is also the perfect way for governments to protect their intellectual property. The so-called whistle blowers you seem to fellate are TREASONOUS BASTARDS. They should be working to support what their government is doing and instead they're playing double agent games. If I found one in my supervision, I'd have him fired on the spot and then arrested under some kind of Homeland Security charge. I'm sure there's a provision for treason like leaking documents in there somewhere.
So hippy, why don't you get a haircut a shave and a bath, then go look for a job down at your local McDonald's or Walmart. You can then do what every good American does and work your way up from the mail room. That's what my grandfather did and that's why I'm an executive today.
We're talking about public record here. Considering Microsoft's dismal track record with DRM and wanting to control data that they have no business controlling, do you really want public records in their document formats? One of the things that Microsoft has been touting is the ability for their documents to have access lists and be traceable. This is really bad news for whistle blowers in the public sector. How else do you leak documents that SHOULD be leaked? In case anyone has forgotten, it's your government. They are YOUR servants, not your masters.
This should be a federal initiative. If our feds weren't so in bed with corporate America, this would be a no brainer. Proprietary document formats with DRM are a bad thing for public record. Don't even mention the fact that with each revision Microsoft has a tendency to break documents in older formats in new and horrendous ways. The idea of having embedded resources beyond text is also monumentally stupid. Embedding URLs for various resources that may shift or wind up being dead later is stupid. Embedding video and sound clips while "neat" stops working unless the media clip is actually made a part of the document. Most users aren't smart enough to do that, so the embedded clip stops working when the document and the media clip are separated. And in the event that the user DOES actually know how to embed the clip properly, then you wind up with a 250 Meg word document that's really nice to try and send via e-mail.
If government moved to an open document format and only kept the most important information (most government business is better conducted via text) in text with limited use of graphics and a complete ban on media clips, we'd be better off in the long run. As a sidenote, if a document seems to "need" media clips, then your not doing your job, or maybe you've been tasked with something that should have gone to PR and a proper media production outfit. My money is on the former in 99.9% of the cases.
Actually... that's part of it's appeal. No matter how strong their resolve, they will always fail since reality does not support them. At that point it's immensely entertaining to watch people struggle so vigorously to assert their positions while you throw out the occassional comment that takes little effort by comparison. Oh wait... that's called TROLLING! (Happy Troll Tuseday! ;P )
Thank you for lowering my hopes for human survival beyond the early 21st century. Man! And I thought Yafro was bad. I wonder how long it will be before all the attention starved Yafro folks move to Vobbo? Terrifying.
Wow. I didn't realize just how widespread the lack of a sense of humour is with the /. mods. Apparently it's terminal.
Tell me about your childhood... ;p
I've been trying to make a decision as to which open source SQL database to go with for use with the DBMail server that I plan on installing here at home. Considering that I couldn't give a rat's ass about web applications (which DBMail is not), it seems like PostgreSQL is the answer. And with the right optimizations, it's likely to be nearly as good a performer as MySQL. Fuck SCO and anyone who choses to work with them.
Check it out now...
I've always read that to mean "Stuff that matters to nerds". Nerds have no business being involved or interested in politics. The last person you want in office is a nerd. An engineer? Yes. A doctor or biologist? Absolutely! A nerd? Never.
Hmmm... So are you suggesting that Broadway should go the way of the dinosaur? Why not the way of Classical Music. Broadway was at least as important as Bach in the develompent of culture. Considering that one of it's offsprings (The Music Video) is still doing quite well world wide. No. Not a dinosaur. A classic that deserves some level of respect. (Heh. And I HATE musicals)
Actually you all appear to have missed the point. The question that the person who submitted the story asked was if both sides could be partially right (specifically in this case CNN vs. the BBC). This is not possible if both sides are completely contrary to each other's positions. It doesn't matter if we're talking about global warming or the ozone hole. The real question that needed to be asked was, "Who is lying and who is telling the truth"? Or at the very least, who is closer to the truth? After pointing that out, I then pointed out the reason that you really can't trust a lot of the media since they all have their reasons for skewing facts in a way that favors their parent companies. I don't see how anything that anyone has harangued me for here addresses what I brought up. Reread the parent.
This has nothing to do with science and everything to do with bias in media. The real question is who is lying and who is telling the truth? My money is on the folks who say global warming is happening because they have quantifiable data to back their claims up. The people who are opposed to those findings have yet to produce reliable proof. But getting back to the question at hand, where does the bias come from? The news media corporations have many companies behind them. And those companies have investors backing them financially expecting a return on their investment. And not just a reasonable return, but unrealistic expectations. This drives those parent companies to cover their asses every which way as long as whatever they are doing makes a profit. They could be putting newborn babies in crash test simulators and if there was a tidy profit to be made from it, they'd do it and then try to hide the fact that they're doing it. Meanwhile, the media companies that they control aren't going to leak a word of the story because the parent company could shoot them down permanently. It's gotten out of hand and I suggest that some people at the tops of many corporations need to be handled in the way that Pat Robertson suggested that Hugo Chavez be handled. ;P Seriously. All the investors need to put down the crack pipes and realize that they are indirectly responsible for a lot of really rotten things. Don't just bury your head in the sand. Accept the fucking responsibility.