They are because Motorola is putting a lot of effort in making them difficult to root. The DROID has yet to be rooted (though work is in progress) and the CLIK is (I assume) being worked on.
I suspect Motorola won't be far behind to close the discovered routes on new phones.
there are a few devices that strive to be as open as a linux phone should be
You rip into the N900 yet fail to take notice that Nokia has made a mainstream device far more open than any other to date, built almost entirely on open source technologies. You could say Android is as well, but it's all about being "open" for hardware developers but sandboxing the user. You're also restricted to Google's version of Java for any sort of user interaction (even if you do write a native app.)
And OpenMoko? Between the hardware and the software, they couldn't keep in a straight enough line to get anything done.
openmoko tried and indeed even though the calypso is undocumented they provided a implementation of how to interface it and thanks to it one can use all of its hardware without binary blobs - NOT POSSIBLE ON THE N900!!!
OH NO!!! We should, of course, give up on encouraging and pushing Nokia's move towards a more open environment and settle for a device with severe flaws and ancient radio technology, and an OS that changes so much it's barely usable.
is it only me or did the slashdot crowd forget what "truly open" means and is now all over a device that is open on the top but not if one wants to really start messing around with it?
The Slashdot crowd isn't packed full of hardcore FSFites of the Stallman variety. Compared to every other viable option out there, the N900 is Truly Open. Making it Free is the next (and harder) step.
And that's one of many reasons WoW has a huge audience compared to most MUDS and RPGs: they don't punish the player horribly for dying.
I think dying and losing a level would be enough of a setback to drive much of WoW's audience away. You'd end up with considerably more people who can actually play the game at the level cap, but for Blizzard it'd crimp revenues.
i quit WoW the day i had my credit card in hand about to buy gold
Do keep in mind that it was not Blizzard you were going to buy gold from, and quite possible that they would have banned you and the person you bought the gold from.
Despite having things available for real money, and people selling gold, nothing Blizzard actively sells to players for use in game give the buyer an advantage.
People are stealing because they know intuitively in their gut that they are being ripped off
They -think- they are being ripped off, but they would do so even if the prices were truly reasonable. The p2p audience seems to consist of pack-rats and freeloaders, with a tiny subset of people who take a moral (and sometimes hypocritical) stand.
copyright holders are failing to meet the needs of their customers - nobody wants digital restrictions
No argument there, but making a case against it is hard. Progress is being made, with the rapid death of DRM on music distributed via iTunes and Amazon.
I don't recall the phones being bricked, but having been re-locked. I highly doubt Apple maliciously destroyed/disabled hardware for being jailbroken, so much as returned it to a known state with the update and the only people who noticed what it was doing were (unsurprisingly) those who significantly altered the state of the device.
Then they must have cropped up in the last few weeks, as the last several times I searched there was nothing regarding that in the first twenty pages of hits.
Considering how cheap they are I'm not surprised. My Aspire One's fan unit failed within the first 5 months and (since I voided the warranty) I can't get service on it. I tried to find a replacement heatsink/fan unit, unfortunately the only suppliers I could find wanted $90 for the damned thing.
Speaking of which, anyone here know where I could get one (or at least, a 30x30x7 (mm))? Surely Slashdot has people in the know.
Besides, intelligent design is not creationism (though creationists tend to use it as a sort of disguise, hence the confusion).
Despite how you try to slant it, ID only exists as a facade that the creationists put up to try and present a "theory" to throw at evolution. It is of little use except as an example of quackery.
ID simply says that an intelligent wossname helped guide evolution.
Which is an entirely useless statement, especially in the context in which those who promote it try to pitch it. However "strong" or "weak" you pitch it, it's still irrelevant.
I do find it interesting though that even the strongest evolutionists
Bold mine. The -only- people who use that phrase are those who, for some reason, have a bone to pick with those who oppose creationism and fight against attempts to introduce ID into schools.
I do find it interesting though that even the strongest evolutionists can't get away from the design mentality. I remember a fierce evolutionist sitting in front of me during a bio lecture, and the professor was lecturing about how things pass through the intestine walls... essentially the whatever would get packed, then unpacked, then packed again. The guy in front of me wrote this down, then wrote "WTF" and circled it, since it didn't make sense to him for the process to work that way. (He later asked the professor why, and there was actually a reasonable explanation for it.)
This of course proves that he was an "evolutionist" and that there was obviously some "design" that went into the means by which things pass through the intestinal walls. Of course, if he was a believer in Intelligent Design, he'd have assumed that it was an example Irreducible Complexity and stopped all thought and inquisition there.
IIRC, HDMI's signaling is basically a single DVI link, and isn't rated to push anything past 1920x1200. Pretty much anything higher requires a dual-link DVI connection, which involves more complex cabling and signal routing on the board.
DisplayPort is a much smaller connector and has an overall smaller PCB footprint, as well as using a thinner cable. I suspect that if Intel doesn't manage to run it by the wayside in a year's time with Lights Peak, you -might- see video cards with combination Mini DisplayPort + HDMI outputs.
When I installed Firefox on this machine via pacman, I had to download over 100 Mb of dependencies as well as the browser itself.
Hey look, an Arch user! If Firefox is too bloated for you, grab the Gecko renderer and write your own front-end.
shell out to something like lftp or wget for when I wanted to download files, the way dillo does.
Again, write your own front-end. Your "solution" isn't wanted by everyone and won't work on things like Windows.
I've got to ask; is writing a simple HTML renderer really so difficult?
Yes? There's a reason than Gecko, Trident, and WebKit get a ton of mileage these days.
I wouldn't necessarily want to support every single tag in existence. HTML 3.2/4.0 without CSS/DOM would be fine. Most of DOM is just the usual spam implemented by corporations anywayz; if you know how to write decent HTML, you don't need it.
So you suggest they cancel service with Verizon. Ok. AT&T and T-Mobile pull the same bullshit. Ok, avoid them too. No cell service for you, time to get a landline. Wait, the only landline providers in your area are Verizon and AT&T.
I wonder if NASA is going to be able to keep up internal interest on these projects with the way their budget keeps getting cleaved. Hell, I wonder how they managed to keep people onboard, what with a 5 year delay between test flights.
VNC and RDP give you the ability to interact in an explicitly remote sense, the windows in question operate on the remote server instance and will remain in existence regardless of what happens to the local system.
That's one reason I stopped using X11 forwarding even though I could: If I lost connection on my laptop for any reason, every application I had open was dead. With VNC (or RDP), they were always running remotely.
Also, if I have an application open on display:0 I have no way (that I know) of moving it from:0 to:10 and having it appear uninterrupted on my local display.
I'd say that they're extremely useful hacks that solve issues that are, at least for me, unresolved in X11.
No, it's totally sound. If you disagree with the GPL you have the right to use the software as you see fit but cannot redistribute it (which is what copyright governs.)
The GPL does impose restrictions that aren't mentioned in copyright law
Like what? Can you name anything that doesn't involve redistribution?
This is nothing but sheer hypocrisy - it's OK for the GPL to impose restrictions in a license, but not for Apple to?
The GPL imposes no restrictions upon you unless you accept it, and those are the terms under which you are granted permission that would otherwise be denied. Apple basically says "copyright says you can't redistribute this, oh and you also can't do a, b, c, d, e, f, g,..."
It is, however, the Mona Lisa of user experience and that is a huge reason it's attracted both people who have never used a smartphone before and those who had been using WinMo and Blackberries.
Android based phones will battle it out with WinMo for space in the non-vendor-specific OS market. RIM will continue to have their loyal holdouts but I suspect both the iPhone and Android will eat into their pie. Nokia will go its own way with Maemo and Symbian.
Also:
1 - Verizon's marketing for the DROID was utter crap. The vast majority of people don't care about "open," in fact I suspect Verizon hates it. People have to be told -why- they should get that phone. Geeks already know that shit. I don't because the N900 is coming and Maemo is more open than (and is an actual Linux distro compared to) Android. Also, CDMA.
2 - Google Navigation is not exclusive to the Droid, between TomTom's app and Google, it could lose that. Also, if the lack of a keyboard was -any- hindrance at all it sure didn't show. Anyone who -wanted- a keyboard would be looking for alternatives anyway.
Android won't fail, but it won't reach anywhere near the popularity of the iPhone. The experience is just too slick for the majority of people, and the rest probably don't care. Or like me, they see something that's slightly better.
- The file system does not handle it directly. - The file should not handle it directly. If you do, a reformat destroys all of the wear-levelling data.
Tri- and Quad-state MLC NAND is basically DOA. The reliability of Two-bit-per-cell NAND is plummeting with each litho revision as fewer and fewer electrons are available for noting the state. As it stands, they're piling on more and more ECC to account for the incredibly bad quality of NAND as it is.
if you sit back and think about the society that decided to get rid of software copyrights if not copyright all together
Well after the sudden mass unemployment by the majority of people involved in the creation of said works, I suppose something would come back. Software would be no more open, however.
Getting source code along with your binaries -- since you can copy, reverse engineer, modify etc the binaries anyway -- would be a basic expectation.
Would it? I suspect the majority would still not distribute the code, and would still require EULAs (since they come into effect before copyright does) and make you agree to everything they do now. We'd roll back to the days of trade guilds, where everything done was kept secret. I doubt that removing copyright would eliminate trade secret law, and closed-source companies would simply move all the source code under that umbrella.
Sure you could get the files via a 3rd party and modify the binaries, but reverse engineering isn't always successful and modifying binaries in place is hazardous at best.
In the end you would likely be no freer. In fact I suspect that the move towards signed binaries and TPM/Palladium would only be accelerated.
Slashdot Mirror
They are because Motorola is putting a lot of effort in making them difficult to root. The DROID has yet to be rooted (though work is in progress) and the CLIK is (I assume) being worked on.
I suspect Motorola won't be far behind to close the discovered routes on new phones.
You rip into the N900 yet fail to take notice that Nokia has made a mainstream device far more open than any other to date, built almost entirely on open source technologies. You could say Android is as well, but it's all about being "open" for hardware developers but sandboxing the user. You're also restricted to Google's version of Java for any sort of user interaction (even if you do write a native app.)
And OpenMoko? Between the hardware and the software, they couldn't keep in a straight enough line to get anything done.
OH NO!!! We should, of course, give up on encouraging and pushing Nokia's move towards a more open environment and settle for a device with severe flaws and ancient radio technology, and an OS that changes so much it's barely usable.
The Slashdot crowd isn't packed full of hardcore FSFites of the Stallman variety. Compared to every other viable option out there, the N900 is Truly Open. Making it Free is the next (and harder) step.
And that's one of many reasons WoW has a huge audience compared to most MUDS and RPGs: they don't punish the player horribly for dying.
I think dying and losing a level would be enough of a setback to drive much of WoW's audience away. You'd end up with considerably more people who can actually play the game at the level cap, but for Blizzard it'd crimp revenues.
Do keep in mind that it was not Blizzard you were going to buy gold from, and quite possible that they would have banned you and the person you bought the gold from.
Despite having things available for real money, and people selling gold, nothing Blizzard actively sells to players for use in game give the buyer an advantage.
As we can see, it has not hurt them any. Obviously, the people they are turning away are very much not paying customers.
Hey look it's a troll!
*snaps picture*
They -think- they are being ripped off, but they would do so even if the prices were truly reasonable. The p2p audience seems to consist of pack-rats and freeloaders, with a tiny subset of people who take a moral (and sometimes hypocritical) stand.
No argument there, but making a case against it is hard. Progress is being made, with the rapid death of DRM on music distributed via iTunes and Amazon.
...and not artistic design. Whoever drew a cover should stay very, very far away from any sort of real work.
I don't recall the phones being bricked, but having been re-locked. I highly doubt Apple maliciously destroyed/disabled hardware for being jailbroken, so much as returned it to a known state with the update and the only people who noticed what it was doing were (unsurprisingly) those who significantly altered the state of the device.
Then they must have cropped up in the last few weeks, as the last several times I searched there was nothing regarding that in the first twenty pages of hits.
Considering how cheap they are I'm not surprised. My Aspire One's fan unit failed within the first 5 months and (since I voided the warranty) I can't get service on it. I tried to find a replacement heatsink/fan unit, unfortunately the only suppliers I could find wanted $90 for the damned thing.
Speaking of which, anyone here know where I could get one (or at least, a 30x30x7 (mm))? Surely Slashdot has people in the know.
I don't recall any hiss or static in mp3s. Maybe you're thinking of the hiss and static that is inherent in analog recordings?
Despite how you try to slant it, ID only exists as a facade that the creationists put up to try and present a "theory" to throw at evolution. It is of little use except as an example of quackery.
Which is an entirely useless statement, especially in the context in which those who promote it try to pitch it. However "strong" or "weak" you pitch it, it's still irrelevant.
Bold mine. The -only- people who use that phrase are those who, for some reason, have a bone to pick with those who oppose creationism and fight against attempts to introduce ID into schools.
This of course proves that he was an "evolutionist" and that there was obviously some "design" that went into the means by which things pass through the intestinal walls. Of course, if he was a believer in Intelligent Design, he'd have assumed that it was an example Irreducible Complexity and stopped all thought and inquisition there.
IIRC, HDMI's signaling is basically a single DVI link, and isn't rated to push anything past 1920x1200. Pretty much anything higher requires a dual-link DVI connection, which involves more complex cabling and signal routing on the board.
DisplayPort is a much smaller connector and has an overall smaller PCB footprint, as well as using a thinner cable. I suspect that if Intel doesn't manage to run it by the wayside in a year's time with Lights Peak, you -might- see video cards with combination Mini DisplayPort + HDMI outputs.
Hey look, an Arch user! If Firefox is too bloated for you, grab the Gecko renderer and write your own front-end.
Again, write your own front-end. Your "solution" isn't wanted by everyone and won't work on things like Windows.
Yes? There's a reason than Gecko, Trident, and WebKit get a ton of mileage these days.
What on earth... go back to /g/ please.
So you suggest they cancel service with Verizon. Ok. AT&T and T-Mobile pull the same bullshit. Ok, avoid them too. No cell service for you, time to get a landline. Wait, the only landline providers in your area are Verizon and AT&T.
What do you do then?
I wonder if NASA is going to be able to keep up internal interest on these projects with the way their budget keeps getting cleaved. Hell, I wonder how they managed to keep people onboard, what with a 5 year delay between test flights.
VNC and RDP give you the ability to interact in an explicitly remote sense, the windows in question operate on the remote server instance and will remain in existence regardless of what happens to the local system.
That's one reason I stopped using X11 forwarding even though I could: If I lost connection on my laptop for any reason, every application I had open was dead. With VNC (or RDP), they were always running remotely.
Also, if I have an application open on display :0 I have no way (that I know) of moving it from :0 to :10 and having it appear uninterrupted on my local display.
I'd say that they're extremely useful hacks that solve issues that are, at least for me, unresolved in X11.
No, it's totally sound. If you disagree with the GPL you have the right to use the software as you see fit but cannot redistribute it (which is what copyright governs.)
Like what? Can you name anything that doesn't involve redistribution?
The GPL imposes no restrictions upon you unless you accept it, and those are the terms under which you are granted permission that would otherwise be denied. Apple basically says "copyright says you can't redistribute this, oh and you also can't do a, b, c, d, e, f, g, ..."
There is no hypocrisy here.
They're only abandoning it in the smartphone area. It'll still be the base OS for their featurephones.
It is, however, the Mona Lisa of user experience and that is a huge reason it's attracted both people who have never used a smartphone before and those who had been using WinMo and Blackberries.
Android based phones will battle it out with WinMo for space in the non-vendor-specific OS market. RIM will continue to have their loyal holdouts but I suspect both the iPhone and Android will eat into their pie. Nokia will go its own way with Maemo and Symbian.
Also:
1 - Verizon's marketing for the DROID was utter crap. The vast majority of people don't care about "open," in fact I suspect Verizon hates it. People have to be told -why- they should get that phone. Geeks already know that shit. I don't because the N900 is coming and Maemo is more open than (and is an actual Linux distro compared to) Android. Also, CDMA.
2 - Google Navigation is not exclusive to the Droid, between TomTom's app and Google, it could lose that. Also, if the lack of a keyboard was -any- hindrance at all it sure didn't show. Anyone who -wanted- a keyboard would be looking for alternatives anyway.
Android won't fail, but it won't reach anywhere near the popularity of the iPhone. The experience is just too slick for the majority of people, and the rest probably don't care. Or like me, they see something that's slightly better.
They do it internally for a couple reasons:
- The file system does not handle it directly.
- The file should not handle it directly. If you do, a reformat destroys all of the wear-levelling data.
Basically, you have a Busybox session where vi and wget haven't been compiled out. You're still bound to whatever Palm decides to push your way.
Which makes me wonder if you can replace the kernel on a Palm Pre, or if it will only boot a signed kernel.
Tri- and Quad-state MLC NAND is basically DOA. The reliability of Two-bit-per-cell NAND is plummeting with each litho revision as fewer and fewer electrons are available for noting the state. As it stands, they're piling on more and more ECC to account for the incredibly bad quality of NAND as it is.
Well after the sudden mass unemployment by the majority of people involved in the creation of said works, I suppose something would come back. Software would be no more open, however.
Would it? I suspect the majority would still not distribute the code, and would still require EULAs (since they come into effect before copyright does) and make you agree to everything they do now. We'd roll back to the days of trade guilds, where everything done was kept secret. I doubt that removing copyright would eliminate trade secret law, and closed-source companies would simply move all the source code under that umbrella.
Sure you could get the files via a 3rd party and modify the binaries, but reverse engineering isn't always successful and modifying binaries in place is hazardous at best.
In the end you would likely be no freer. In fact I suspect that the move towards signed binaries and TPM/Palladium would only be accelerated.