Next thing you know, someone is going to patent our oxygen, or something equally ridiculous. I dont know about you, but the idea of someone else owning a patent on DNA that's a part of ME makes me positively livid. I can see medical research in general being patented and regulated, but on that type of scale, where literally EVERYBODY is involved, something akin to Open Source is necessary. I could care less about the molecular structure of any particular drug, but the stuff that's a part of me is stuff I should certianly have the right to access without paying some greedy bastard a bunch of money I don't have.
Naturally, we could extrapolate a worst case scenario, where corps start taking credit for EVERYTHING. Imagine being geneticy engineered and having to pay extra taxes or face travek restrictions and tariffs because of it. Forget taxes, the only two constants are Death and Greed.
Is that people who are less versed in the arts of Dry Comedy may take it as wrote and reply accordingly. I think a lot of bonfires on slashdot get started this way- someone makes a snide remark like "MacOS can't multitask" (for example), and bring your marshmallows: even if it was a joke, the Macheads are going to get hurt and start spouting back. No one wins. This is why I try to keep humor out of my posts and respond to everything as if what is written is an opinion the poster would die for. What makes each of us laugh or cry is relative to our experience. Personally, I find all of this flaming and bitching over operating systems and hardware to be truly sad, and not something I want to be a part of. If someone makes a product better than Photoshop that runs on Linux, then I'll think about converting. Until then I'm sticking with the Mac. It's my belief (to the death, dammit) that your OS shouldn'tbe an issue, should be easy to use and FUN, dammit. It shouldn't get in the way of workflow. If PS and other products worked half as well on a Wintel box I'd be there, but you wouldn't see me rattling my saber for M$. Linux is too big a headache for me to concern myself with. Potentially aggravating comments, on the other hand, are in need of being dealt with for the good of the individual and the community.
The American Revolution has a lot of similarities- we fought the English Empire, won our freedom, and went on to forge our own little empire. The sun has set on England, but it shines on America 24/7. The rebels have become the establishment.
Revolution is a fine idea, but what happens when the empire is overthrown? If you don't like Solaris then quit bitching and be constructive. The only thing Zealotry proves is that you''re a Follower, not a Leader. The fact that you haven't thought things through enough to realize that if it involves computers, it's news to SOMEBODY, speaks of a high degree of self-centeredness and possible egotism. Unless your nick is CmndrTaco or Hemos, you don't speak for Slashdot (and no one speaks for the users). You speak only for your own narrow little mind- and who wants to hear an uninformed opinion, anyway?
You can be right, but at the bottom line the people are going to believe the man with the better delivery, not some arrogant loudmouth.
Case proven and closed. Try using your mind, if you have one. Being trendy isn't all there is to life.
Why is it that people have an alarming tendency to leave the caps key on when they're being idiots? Is this some sort of "my member is bigger than yours" mating ritual? Combine that with an alarming tendency to misuse numbers and really, really bad punctuation (we all misspell from time to time, but really...)- and being taken as anything other than a chronicly pissed off six year old who needs a spanking is going to be very, very difficult.
More importantly: Why do poeple pirate software? There are, from my experience, three types of "pirates", if you will:
1. Warez D00dz. Enough said. These are the sort of people that use pirated software because they think they're cool. So what if your average flamer has 3dsMax, True Space, Illustrator, Quark, etc. on his hard drive? Odds are it's only to impress his friends and the applications get little to no use. These people have enough trouble typing- their artistic capability is more than likely lacking. I'm sorry, but you could have every program ever and you're still not going to impress me. I'm more impressed by my roommates- one has rewritten LiteStep into a respectable GUI and the other has created the Max Script from Hell and is doing high-profile freelance for a big company. And he hasn't even graduated yet.
2. High-end criminals. The fly-by-nighters who sell the stuff for cheap at trade expos and in the back of catalogues, on ebay, or web sites, etceteras. These people usually have the resources to fabricate the packaging, and are going to charge you a fairly reasonable amount of cash for the goods. What the software should be priced to begin with, IMHO. If companies like Adobe and MS slased prices, then these goons would have to drop theirs, which isn't something they can reasonably do while keeping up a front of "respectability".
3. The "Morally Ambiguous", or Rational Anarchists, if you will. These are the sort of people who have legal copies of the stuff at work and school, and natrually, their home machines are loaded to the gills. They have indirect access to the latest and greatest at no personal cost- do you expect them not to take advantage of it? If you do, leave now: it's a mentality that is difficult to reason with. If programs that were as powerful and useable as Director, After Effects, Photoshop, etceteras, were available in Linux, these types would scarf them up instantly. And no, Gimp can NOT compete with a base install of Photoshop 5.02 in the hands of a capable user. Sorry. Flame me all you like. These people do as they please because they are in an environment where it is condusive to do so. The issue of license holding can always be brushed aside, since someone in the chain of command actually owns one. Just not the Rational Anarchist.
The rational anarchy standpoint is an interesting one, particullalry in the case of apps like Photoshop and Director: the project work gets done, but in a more convenient setting. And the company laready has the license for the stuff.
If you really, REALLY want to stomp out piracy, go the Media100 route. Media100 software requires a board of varying capabilities and costs to be physically insterted into a PCI slot for your software to perform at something approaching peak useability. Oh, yo ucan dupe that CD as much as you want, but there's only one board per license- and good luck fabricating THAT. But then, do really want a bunch of dongles and PCI boards cluttering up your box? Didn't think so.
If it isn't already obvious, I firmly stand for the third category. If Linux ever developes apps that are useable for what I do for a living, then I'll jump on the bandwagon. It's a concept I believe in. But then, I also think Eight Tracks and Bubble Memory are cool ideas too. Linux is to me the way the Mac is to Windows users: it goes, and it does a lot of neat things you can use, but overall, it doesn't have anything you want or need. But that's me. Of course, as is much the case with things like Quake and Star Wars, Linux has its share of Zealots. Followers who really need to get a life. Let them flame me if they like. In my opinion, Slashdot is an open forum for this sort of thing. And in the tradition of freely developed stuff, if the people in charge see a reason to do something off-topic (Hemos losing his living quarters, for example), then as the people in charge, they can. I doubt that the bulk of the detractors out there have any idea what it is that goes on behind the scenes, what makes Slashdot tick. These people are more than likely ignorant louts who have no idea what Perl is or how talented Rob is when it comes to its implementation. Of course, said detractors more than likely fall into category one.
Bottom line: as long as large amounts of cash are charged for software, there will be piracy. As long as licencing is an issue, there will be the Morally Ambiguous to step around it and get the job done anyway. And as long as there is an "average" intelligence, those on the lower end will make fun of and yell at (in caps, of course) the things they can't understand.
I have two main computers- one I sue as my work box, the other one is a backup archive, cd burner, and - you guessed it- stereo. I'm constantly running two MP3 cds off of it unless it's rebooting or the burner is in use. Contents include: Metallica, Sound Garden, Gwar, Curve, KMFDM, Clan of Xymox, and a whole big host of industrial and gothic. The only time the rig is ever turned off is when I leave town.
By far. Sure, they're calibrated differently, but I grew up with Fahrenheit and english measure, and I for one think it's more accurate. Which sounds heavier: 155lbs or 69kilos? Which sounds warmer? 90 degrees f or 50 degrees c? It just feels a little more realistic to me, I guess...
What I'm saying is if a person is not related to the matter at hand in any ay shape or form (financially, from a family standpoint, etc), then they have NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER to interfere in my decisions. If the state or some right-wing reality-impaired person is willing to foot the bill or help out, then I'll listen to what they have to say. Until then, their opinion is discarded with the rest of the flamers and lusers out there. If I made a mistake, then it is m decision to rectify the situation however I deem fit. By removing my ability to choose, you are in actuality forcing responsibility on me- you may as well make me mow your lawn while you're at it.
And if you have any more, send it to mine. EVERY SINGLE MacOS crash I have had in the past YEAR has related to one of the following four things: 1. Soundapp 2.x (the latest version is stable as all hell, so that's no longer an issue) 2. Macromedia Director. it crashed twice, I think. 3. MacAmp and similar MP3 players. Holy poop, if you actually WANT to destroy your system, then run macamp and try, jsut TRY to dun a game or a major application. Spoop! 4. Netscape. All the frickin' time. This app gets more crash time than I do sleep. It goes bang at least once a session. 5. Those damned "press ookay to restart" messages that give you no option. Force quit them, and the system gets wobbly. Do it more than once, and BLANG! Toast. I really, really don't want to spend 3 minutes waiting to get back to what I was doing. If Be had major support, I would be SO there....
Anyway. The finder is fine. Netscape runs like a dog that just chugged a gallon of anitfreeze, especially when initializing Java or those assinine macromedia plugins. The only other problem i've had with the G3 towers is the "drunk mouse" while transferring files to a zip drive, and those ADS! Those #$^%#$%Q ADS! In Sherlock. One day I WILL figure out how to get rid of those.... I will NOT use sherlock to surf until they kill those. GUIs should NOT have advertising in them anywhere, sorry.
Well, we don't have any choice in the life thing. It is, as another Slashdoter put, a 100% fatal STD. So who would deny that a life of suffering is preferable? One of the few things I value is my mind- if I had Alzheimers, I would be VERY disappointed in anyone who stood in the way of me taking my own life. Everyone says "It's your life. Do what you will." UNTIL it comes to ending it. Excuse me people, but since I got out and figured out what death was, it's been MY decision to keep waking up, and I would very much like it to be my decision to STOP waking up. This is a basic right that I think many, many people are being denied.
If a disability is acquired later in life, then it should be the choice of that person to end his/her life if that person so desires. I don't see the state or some pro-life idiot paying my medical bills, so if I reproduce, and that reproduction is severely flawed and would be better off dead, then so be it. If the state or anyone else wants to pay my bills and medical insurance, THEN I will seriously consider what they have to say when they get all huffy about the "sanctity of life". If they do not have a part in it, then they do not have a right to interfere in it- it's a simple equation that is older than our present "civilization". And something the uptights cannot understand, for some reason. Figure that one out, and cold fusion isn't far behind.
with all of this hoopla over the Evil Empire and their biz practices, and as a whole-hearted Mac user, I'm inlined to sit back and snicker but for three things- 1. MS, IMHO, makes a pretty spiffy word processor. I use Word 6 for a LOT of typing. Office 98 gives me hives, though.,.. 2. I've been using Hotmail since before MS bought it. 3. I have a 486 desktop and a 386 laptop. These are, naturally, MS saturated.
What I have to say and ask relates to number three, since I'm sure there are a lot of ou out there who will make fun of me for using hotmail and owning a mac (finger to the lot of you who will judge me while never knowing the reason why). I would like to purge MS from both pieces of hardware. And replace the void with Linux. I'm a Mac user and I liek the Mac GUI/OS, so I have no desire to replace any of my Macintoshes. Is there ANY flavor out there that installs small enough to fit on a 386/25/4 NCR safari laptop with outboard floppy drive? The HD is 75 megs.... AND What would run best on a factory-issue packard bell with 486/75/8, no modem and a fried floppy drive? Since I can't get anything off of it, i want to wipe it, put Linux on it, and use it as a dedicated MP3 player if that is at all possible with a 486. Finally, can Linux read HFS and HFS plus formatted disks?
Advance thanks to anyone who can either help or point me to a better place to post this.
Is it just me, or has everything we've aimed at Mars since the Viking mission somehow gotten lost along the way, fallen out of contact, or experienced technological malfunction? Coincidence or conspiracy?
I can understand a computer doing advertising: that stuff is blocked out like so much optic fecal matter that I don't even notice it anymore. I know Slashdot has an ad at the top, so my eyes start scanning a few pixels lower. But a 'pute writing fiction? Stuff it. THe best thing about the human organism is its ability to write what it has percieved and imagined in a fashion for others to enjoy. You can experiment with grammar and structure, and sometimes you can pull off a stunningly personal situation by STRUCTURING IT INCORRECTLY. Few people I know speak in a grammatcally correct fashion: our machine in question may be able to handle dialogue, but can it account for a real person? Can it make the character feel REAL to you, the reader? Yes, I've read a lot of flat and lifeless fiction. I file it under CRAP with most of the rest of what society offers for consumption. If the story isn't REAL, at least in the mind of the writer, then it jsut can't come across as such on paper. I've been hooked by the hokiest concepts and characters not because they were well written, but because the author put every bit of his BELIEF into the concept he was relating. It was REAL. And our beige box? Can it do the same thing? If it can, i still refuse to read it. Bell labs or whomever will never produce a Proust, Chekhov, or a Hunter S Thompson.
Really. Someone needs to jsut kick the peg out from under our little inverse pyramid here. Organizations like that can get in line to lick my nether-regions, right behind the banking system, waking up before noon, and the Republican party.
excellent point. but why are you afraid to back it with a name? There is NOTHING to lose here people! The government is already crumbling down around us- most people just haven't realized it yet. Look at public education. Who did you learn more from? Friends and family and your own research? Or "teachers" and textbooks?
Simply put: idiot proofed broswers. Use net-nanny, etcetera (which locked out Hotmail on my high school computers, BTW), and just have the software scan by keyword or what have you. Our world does NOT need t o be regualted: if you force that stuff on people, they are going to get resentful. THe only reason no one has put these conservative freaks out of their misery is they're not worth the bullet, and they do have a point from time to time. THe point isn't kids finding porn online, folks. The point is that THE PARENTS ARE LETTING THEM GET TO IT> The responsibility, the same as Columbine, lies with the parents. Not Manson, not anrachists, not opinionated MFs like myself. We live in an era of zero-responsibility, and those who don't want it are trying to burn the most visible targets. Sites like mine that say "f#ck" a lot.
So the real quesiton here is this: Why aren't they putting the blame where it belongs?
I for one support anything that is not "PC" hardware or wintel based. I am visually minded (extremely so), and UNIX just plain pisses me off. So does DOS. I for one am not a fan of typing in a lot of hooey to get where you're going, and while I've never used an Amiga beyond video toast, I'll bet money that it's a hell of a lot better than what's out there now. Heck, anything would be. The Law of Ninety Percent Shit applies to everything in the computer world as well as the real world- 90% of the Users I know are either elitist pigs or idiots, same as the real world. I think Amiga is near the end of its 90% phase. Of course, being an advocate of both the Amiga AND the Mac will probably get me kicked off this site, but screw it! Visual users need to be represented as well. Every OS I've used has serious issues in it, and for me the Mac solves most of them. But then, just try to debabelize 1500 targa files. There are some things you CAN'T do with Mac. Great. I accept it. I'm still not buying a PC: i've heard too much Mac bashing by Users and frankly I think it speaks of ignorance and bias- I know enough about both mainstream operating systems to destroy them and necessitate a reinstall if need be, while the average "Mac Sucks" person doesn't know that oyu need to empty the trash to delete your data. I'm seeing the same general sort of attitude toward the Amiga. I think it will be great, simply because what is avaialable now is so rotten. And I've always favored the underdog. Following the 90% theory, it is a natural extrapolation that whatever is apporved of by The Majority is obviously hideously flawed in some way- we have Microsoft, the Bible, and the US governement to prove this little concept.
Slashdot Mirror
Next thing you know, someone is going to patent our oxygen, or something equally ridiculous. I dont know about you, but the idea of someone else owning a patent on DNA that's a part of ME makes me positively livid. I can see medical research in general being patented and regulated, but on that type of scale, where literally EVERYBODY is involved, something akin to Open Source is necessary. I could care less about the molecular structure of any particular drug, but the stuff that's a part of me is stuff I should certianly have the right to access without paying some greedy bastard a bunch of money I don't have.
Naturally, we could extrapolate a worst case scenario, where corps start taking credit for EVERYTHING. Imagine being geneticy engineered and having to pay extra taxes or face travek restrictions and tariffs because of it. Forget taxes, the only two constants are Death and Greed.
Is that people who are less versed in the arts of Dry Comedy may take it as wrote and reply accordingly. I think a lot of bonfires on slashdot get started this way- someone makes a snide remark like "MacOS can't multitask" (for example), and bring your marshmallows: even if it was a joke, the Macheads are going to get hurt and start spouting back. No one wins. This is why I try to keep humor out of my posts and respond to everything as if what is written is an opinion the poster would die for.
What makes each of us laugh or cry is relative to our experience. Personally, I find all of this flaming and bitching over operating systems and hardware to be truly sad, and not something I want to be a part of. If someone makes a product better than Photoshop that runs on Linux, then I'll think about converting. Until then I'm sticking with the Mac. It's my belief (to the death, dammit) that your OS shouldn'tbe an issue, should be easy to use and FUN, dammit. It shouldn't get in the way of workflow. If PS and other products worked half as well on a Wintel box I'd be there, but you wouldn't see me rattling my saber for M$. Linux is too big a headache for me to concern myself with.
Potentially aggravating comments, on the other hand, are in need of being dealt with for the good of the individual and the community.
The American Revolution has a lot of similarities- we fought the English Empire, won our freedom, and went on to forge our own little empire. The sun has set on England, but it shines on America 24/7. The rebels have become the establishment.
Revolution is a fine idea, but what happens when the empire is overthrown? If you don't like Solaris then quit bitching and be constructive. The only thing Zealotry proves is that you''re a Follower, not a Leader. The fact that you haven't thought things through enough to realize that if it involves computers, it's news to SOMEBODY, speaks of a high degree of self-centeredness and possible egotism. Unless your nick is CmndrTaco or Hemos, you don't speak for Slashdot (and no one speaks for the users). You speak only for your own narrow little mind- and who wants to hear an uninformed opinion, anyway?
You can be right, but at the bottom line the people are going to believe the man with the better delivery, not some arrogant loudmouth.
Case proven and closed. Try using your mind, if you have one. Being trendy isn't all there is to life.
Why is it that people have an alarming tendency to leave the caps key on when they're being idiots? Is this some sort of "my member is bigger than yours" mating ritual? Combine that with an alarming tendency to misuse numbers and really, really bad punctuation (we all misspell from time to time, but really...)- and being taken as anything other than a chronicly pissed off six year old who needs a spanking is going to be very, very difficult.
More importantly:
Why do poeple pirate software?
There are, from my experience, three types of "pirates", if you will:
1. Warez D00dz. Enough said. These are the sort of people that use pirated software because they think they're cool. So what if your average flamer has 3dsMax, True Space, Illustrator, Quark, etc. on his hard drive? Odds are it's only to impress his friends and the applications get little to no use. These people have enough trouble typing- their artistic capability is more than likely lacking. I'm sorry, but you could have every program ever and you're still not going to impress me. I'm more impressed by my roommates- one has rewritten LiteStep into a respectable GUI and the other has created the Max Script from Hell and is doing high-profile freelance for a big company. And he hasn't even graduated yet.
2. High-end criminals. The fly-by-nighters who sell the stuff for cheap at trade expos and in the back of catalogues, on ebay, or web sites, etceteras. These people usually have the resources to fabricate the packaging, and are going to charge you a fairly reasonable amount of cash for the goods. What the software should be priced to begin with, IMHO. If companies like Adobe and MS slased prices, then these goons would have to drop theirs, which isn't something they can reasonably do while keeping up a front of "respectability".
3. The "Morally Ambiguous", or Rational Anarchists, if you will. These are the sort of people who have legal copies of the stuff at work and school, and natrually, their home machines are loaded to the gills. They have indirect access to the latest and greatest at no personal cost- do you expect them not to take advantage of it? If you do, leave now: it's a mentality that is difficult to reason with. If programs that were as powerful and useable as Director, After Effects, Photoshop, etceteras, were available in Linux, these types would scarf them up instantly. And no, Gimp can NOT compete with a base install of Photoshop 5.02 in the hands of a capable user. Sorry. Flame me all you like. These people do as they please because they are in an environment where it is condusive to do so. The issue of license holding can always be brushed aside, since someone in the chain of command actually owns one. Just not the Rational Anarchist.
The rational anarchy standpoint is an interesting one, particullalry in the case of apps like Photoshop and Director: the project work gets done, but in a more convenient setting. And the company laready has the license for the stuff.
If you really, REALLY want to stomp out piracy, go the Media100 route. Media100 software requires a board of varying capabilities and costs to be physically insterted into a PCI slot for your software to perform at something approaching peak useability. Oh, yo ucan dupe that CD as much as you want, but there's only one board per license- and good luck fabricating THAT. But then, do really want a bunch of dongles and PCI boards cluttering up your box? Didn't think so.
If it isn't already obvious, I firmly stand for the third category. If Linux ever developes apps that are useable for what I do for a living, then I'll jump on the bandwagon. It's a concept I believe in. But then, I also think Eight Tracks and Bubble Memory are cool ideas too. Linux is to me the way the Mac is to Windows users: it goes, and it does a lot of neat things you can use, but overall, it doesn't have anything you want or need. But that's me. Of course, as is much the case with things like Quake and Star Wars, Linux has its share of Zealots. Followers who really need to get a life. Let them flame me if they like. In my opinion, Slashdot is an open forum for this sort of thing. And in the tradition of freely developed stuff, if the people in charge see a reason to do something off-topic (Hemos losing his living quarters, for example), then as the people in charge, they can. I doubt that the bulk of the detractors out there have any idea what it is that goes on behind the scenes, what makes Slashdot tick. These people are more than likely ignorant louts who have no idea what Perl is or how talented Rob is when it comes to its implementation.
Of course, said detractors more than likely fall into category one.
Bottom line: as long as large amounts of cash are charged for software, there will be piracy. As long as licencing is an issue, there will be the Morally Ambiguous to step around it and get the job done anyway. And as long as there is an "average" intelligence, those on the lower end will make fun of and yell at (in caps, of course) the things they can't understand.
I have two main computers- one I sue as my work box, the other one is a backup archive, cd burner, and - you guessed it- stereo. I'm constantly running two MP3 cds off of it unless it's rebooting or the burner is in use. Contents include: Metallica, Sound Garden, Gwar, Curve, KMFDM, Clan of Xymox, and a whole big host of industrial and gothic. The only time the rig is ever turned off is when I leave town.
By far. Sure, they're calibrated differently, but I grew up with Fahrenheit and english measure, and I for one think it's more accurate. Which sounds heavier: 155lbs or 69kilos? Which sounds warmer? 90 degrees f or 50 degrees c? It just feels a little more realistic to me, I guess...
What I'm saying is if a person is not related to the matter at hand in any ay shape or form (financially, from a family standpoint, etc), then they have NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER to interfere in my decisions. If the state or some right-wing reality-impaired person is willing to foot the bill or help out, then I'll listen to what they have to say. Until then, their opinion is discarded with the rest of the flamers and lusers out there. If I made a mistake, then it is m decision to rectify the situation however I deem fit. By removing my ability to choose, you are in actuality forcing responsibility on me- you may as well make me mow your lawn while you're at it.
ERROR! Will robinson! Volume is not indexed. That aside, you;re good to go.
And if you have any more, send it to mine. EVERY SINGLE MacOS crash I have had in the past YEAR has related to one of the following four things:
1. Soundapp 2.x (the latest version is stable as all hell, so that's no longer an issue)
2. Macromedia Director. it crashed twice, I think.
3. MacAmp and similar MP3 players. Holy poop, if you actually WANT to destroy your system, then run macamp and try, jsut TRY to dun a game or a major application. Spoop!
4. Netscape. All the frickin' time. This app gets more crash time than I do sleep. It goes bang at least once a session.
5. Those damned "press ookay to restart" messages that give you no option. Force quit them, and the system gets wobbly. Do it more than once, and BLANG! Toast. I really, really don't want to spend 3 minutes waiting to get back to what I was doing. If Be had major support, I would be SO there....
Anyway.
The finder is fine. Netscape runs like a dog that just chugged a gallon of anitfreeze, especially when initializing Java or those assinine macromedia plugins. The only other problem i've had with the G3 towers is the "drunk mouse" while transferring files to a zip drive, and those ADS! Those #$^%#$%Q ADS! In Sherlock. One day I WILL figure out how to get rid of those.... I will NOT use sherlock to surf until they kill those. GUIs should NOT have advertising in them anywhere, sorry.
Well, we don't have any choice in the life thing. It is, as another Slashdoter put, a 100% fatal STD. So who would deny that a life of suffering is preferable? One of the few things I value is my mind- if I had Alzheimers, I would be VERY disappointed in anyone who stood in the way of me taking my own life. Everyone says "It's your life. Do what you will." UNTIL it comes to ending it. Excuse me people, but since I got out and figured out what death was, it's been MY decision to keep waking up, and I would very much like it to be my decision to STOP waking up. This is a basic right that I think many, many people are being denied.
If a disability is acquired later in life, then it should be the choice of that person to end his/her life if that person so desires. I don't see the state or some pro-life idiot paying my medical bills, so if I reproduce, and that reproduction is severely flawed and would be better off dead, then so be it. If the state or anyone else wants to pay my bills and medical insurance, THEN I will seriously consider what they have to say when they get all huffy about the "sanctity of life". If they do not have a part in it, then they do not have a right to interfere in it- it's a simple equation that is older than our present "civilization". And something the uptights cannot understand, for some reason. Figure that one out, and cold fusion isn't far behind.
with all of this hoopla over the Evil Empire and their biz practices, and as a whole-hearted Mac user, I'm inlined to sit back and snicker but for three things-
1. MS, IMHO, makes a pretty spiffy word processor. I use Word 6 for a LOT of typing. Office 98 gives me hives, though.,..
2. I've been using Hotmail since before MS bought it.
3. I have a 486 desktop and a 386 laptop. These are, naturally, MS saturated.
What I have to say and ask relates to number three, since I'm sure there are a lot of ou out there who will make fun of me for using hotmail and owning a mac (finger to the lot of you who will judge me while never knowing the reason why). I would like to purge MS from both pieces of hardware. And replace the void with Linux. I'm a Mac user and I liek the Mac GUI/OS, so I have no desire to replace any of my Macintoshes.
Is there ANY flavor out there that installs small enough to fit on a 386/25/4 NCR safari laptop with outboard floppy drive? The HD is 75 megs....
AND
What would run best on a factory-issue packard bell with 486/75/8, no modem and a fried floppy drive? Since I can't get anything off of it, i want to wipe it, put Linux on it, and use it as a dedicated MP3 player if that is at all possible with a 486.
Finally, can Linux read HFS and HFS plus formatted disks?
Advance thanks to anyone who can either help or point me to a better place to post this.
Dan
Is it just me, or has everything we've aimed at Mars since the Viking mission somehow gotten lost along the way, fallen out of contact, or experienced technological malfunction? Coincidence or conspiracy?
I can understand a computer doing advertising: that stuff is blocked out like so much optic fecal matter that I don't even notice it anymore. I know Slashdot has an ad at the top, so my eyes start scanning a few pixels lower. But a 'pute writing fiction? Stuff it.
THe best thing about the human organism is its ability to write what it has percieved and imagined in a fashion for others to enjoy. You can experiment with grammar and structure, and sometimes you can pull off a stunningly personal situation by STRUCTURING IT INCORRECTLY. Few people I know speak in a grammatcally correct fashion: our machine in question may be able to handle dialogue, but can it account for a real person? Can it make the character feel REAL to you, the reader? Yes, I've read a lot of flat and lifeless fiction. I file it under CRAP with most of the rest of what society offers for consumption. If the story isn't REAL, at least in the mind of the writer, then it jsut can't come across as such on paper. I've been hooked by the hokiest concepts and characters not because they were well written, but because the author put every bit of his BELIEF into the concept he was relating. It was REAL.
And our beige box? Can it do the same thing? If it can, i still refuse to read it. Bell labs or whomever will never produce a Proust, Chekhov, or a Hunter S Thompson.
Really. Someone needs to jsut kick the peg out from under our little inverse pyramid here. Organizations like that can get in line to lick my nether-regions, right behind the banking system, waking up before noon, and the Republican party.
excellent point. but why are you afraid to back it with a name? There is NOTHING to lose here people! The government is already crumbling down around us- most people just haven't realized it yet. Look at public education. Who did you learn more from? Friends and family and your own research? Or "teachers" and textbooks?
Simply put: idiot proofed broswers. Use net-nanny, etcetera (which locked out Hotmail on my high school computers, BTW), and just have the software scan by keyword or what have you. Our world does NOT need t o be regualted: if you force that stuff on people, they are going to get resentful. THe only reason no one has put these conservative freaks out of their misery is they're not worth the bullet, and they do have a point from time to time. THe point isn't kids finding porn online, folks. The point is that THE PARENTS ARE LETTING THEM GET TO IT> The responsibility, the same as Columbine, lies with the parents. Not Manson, not anrachists, not opinionated MFs like myself. We live in an era of zero-responsibility, and those who don't want it are trying to burn the most visible targets. Sites like mine that say "f#ck" a lot.
So the real quesiton here is this:
Why aren't they putting the blame where it belongs?
Yeah: ANYBODY ELSE. I'd vote Howard Stern in before anyone on either ticket right now.
I for one support anything that is not "PC" hardware or wintel based. I am visually minded (extremely so), and UNIX just plain pisses me off. So does DOS. I for one am not a fan of typing in a lot of hooey to get where you're going, and while I've never used an Amiga beyond video toast, I'll bet money that it's a hell of a lot better than what's out there now. Heck, anything would be. The Law of Ninety Percent Shit applies to everything in the computer world as well as the real world- 90% of the Users I know are either elitist pigs or idiots, same as the real world. I think Amiga is near the end of its 90% phase. Of course, being an advocate of both the Amiga AND the Mac will probably get me kicked off this site, but screw it! Visual users need to be represented as well. Every OS I've used has serious issues in it, and for me the Mac solves most of them. But then, just try to debabelize 1500 targa files. There are some things you CAN'T do with Mac. Great. I accept it. I'm still not buying a PC: i've heard too much Mac bashing by Users and frankly I think it speaks of ignorance and bias- I know enough about both mainstream operating systems to destroy them and necessitate a reinstall if need be, while the average "Mac Sucks" person doesn't know that oyu need to empty the trash to delete your data. I'm seeing the same general sort of attitude toward the Amiga. I think it will be great, simply because what is avaialable now is so rotten. And I've always favored the underdog. Following the 90% theory, it is a natural extrapolation that whatever is apporved of by The Majority is obviously hideously flawed in some way- we have Microsoft, the Bible, and the US governement to prove this little concept.
Bring back the damned Commodore already!