Not only does it fall under the category of unusual, but it's also cruel.
I don't know how you think criminals are usually punnished, but fines and/or jail time certainly isn't unusual, it's quite usual. Is it cruel? Well, maybe I should have used the argument that a fine was cruel to get out of my last speeding ticket. If your point was that fining someone for more damage than they did was cruel and unusual, you are wrong there as well. Fines, or punnishments for that matter, are meant to cost you more than you would gain from a crime because they are meant to deter people from the crime. Most states have littering laws of several hundred dollars. does dropping a can on the ground do several hundred dollars of damage? Does it costs hundreds of dollars to hire someone to pick the can up? No, but most people will think twice about littering if they know they can be fined hundreds of dollars, set the fine to ten cents, or however much it actually costs to clean up a can or a discarded piece of paper and you'll find that litter increases dramatically. If you steal $1,000 from someone (I'm not attempting to make a direct correlation between stealing from someone and piracy) your punnishment will probably be more severe than a $1,000 fine. If cheating on a test gives you 15 points that you would not have gotten without cheating, your school will probably punnish you in a much more severe manner than simply deducting 15 points from your score (assuming you're in college, grade schools don't seem to care much about cheating).
Being able to intercept the playback "is a reality of the music and PC industry," Unangst said. "It's like buying a pay-per-view movie and recording it on your VCR. People will still rent movies and buy CDs."
If they still think people will by CDs, why are they trying to market a secure music format? Their whole selling point was that CD sales will go down because someone can buy a CD and distribute the mp3 which will reduce sales, but now they're saying that because someone can buy a wma file and distribute it that this won't reduce sales?
Your TV is limited to displaying (num_of_pixels / sizeof(polygon)) * refresh_rate polygons per second. Since the original poster stated that the size of a polygon in a typical benchmark is 3 pixels, it becomes a simple calculation to solve.
I believe you are mistaking what others are saying about the viral nature of the GPL as a knock against the GPL, so I'd like to preface this by saying that I think the GPL is better than the BSD license for the reasons you've already pointed out.
Virus is, for the most part, a pejorative word. When people refer to the GPL as viral, however, they refer to the way the GPL spreads, but they don't necessarily use the word in a negative fashion. When GPL'd code comes into contact with other code, it spreads the GPL to the other code -- this is why the GPL is viral.
A virus isn't necessarily bad; someone could conceivably write a computer virus which did something useful, but it would still be a virus even if it didn't do anything bad. In short: Viral != Bad.
But in fact moving the origin away from zero is common in such diagrams, and it is useful, because more space of the diragram is used for the differences instead of the 0..100% range that bears no information.
The use of a chart is to compare two or more items. It should give enough information at a glance to not only decide which item is (better|larger|faster) but also by how much. The part of the chart which "bears no information" is used so that you can interpret how much (better|larger|faster) one item is from another -- if one piece is twice as large as another it should be twice as (good|large|fast) as the other. When companies move the origin away from zero, the graph no longer serves that purpose. Sure, you can look at the numbers and do the math, but why not just post numbers instead along with big letters spelling out We Are Faster since that's the only information a non-zero-origin graph gives, it would even save the time spent downloading the graph. It may be common, but it is certainly intentionally deceitful.
HP wasn't interested in his computer design because it was a home computer and nobody used computers in their home at the time, only businesses used computers. It was like proposing a home forklift. There were a few geeks with computers, but they represented an insignificant part of the population, and they had them for the cool factor, not because there were many useful things they could do with them. Even the executives at Intel couldn't imagine that people would want to use computers in their homes. I remember a quote from one of the head Intel guys saying the only use they could think of for a personal computer was for a woman to store her recipes on.
It's tough now to think of a world without computers, but it wasn't too long ago when nobody owned a computer. As they say, hindsight is always 20/20.
Sure, mathematically they might be the same, but because of our depth perception, we are able to determine how large something actually is. I'm sitting about a foot and a half away from a 21" monitor right now, and downstairs I have a 52" tv which I sit at least six feet away from. Although the 21" monitor may take up more of my field of vision, the 52" screen still appears to be larger and is more appealing to watch. Sure, this may just be a psychological effect, but I'm sure most people would rather watch a movie from the back row of movie theater than sitting close to a 25" television regardless of field of vision.
The article said Microworkz is not going to overcommit this time around (limiting sales to 10K units in the next 2 months). This isn't a guarantee that they won't take two months to get your order, but I'm sure the company knows that if it gets a reputation for delaying orders over a month that they'll go out of business mighty quick.
I doubt the machines will be factory configured with a lot of net daemons running. The clueless newbies aren't going to want an ftpd running (and probably won't know what an ftpd is) so the machines won't have ftpd running by default, thus any future ftpd exploits won't affect them. (ftpd used as an example, same reasoning applied to other socket listening daemons).
With the falling prices in hardware, the cost of a windows 95 license from microsoft becomes increasingly significant. I think we will see lots of manufacturers using free operating systems on their low-end machines. When the people who have purchased a cheap machine decide to upgrade to a more expensive computer, they'll probably feel more comfortable with having linux or *BSD on their new machine rather than windows 95 because they are used to linux or *BSD (or whatever OS was on their cheap computer). This should not only dispel the rumors that linux is hard to use, but should also convince more computer manufacturers to offer linux on their entire line of computers.
Libraries exist so that we can read books and magazines without having to pay for them. Does this hurt the publishing companies? I'm sure it does, when I was in college I used to read magazines at the library that I would have had to subscribe to otherwise. There doesn't seem to be much of a difference between pirating a program to avoid paying for it, or reading a book/magazine at a library to avoid paying for it. Certainly there is a large legal difference since one is legal and the other is not, but can you imagine a system in which you were required to pay for every book and every magazine you needed to use? Why should it be any different for software?
We all seem to accept that we should not have to pay to read a book or magazine which a company has spent money to put together, but many people seem to think that we should have to pay to use software which a company has spent money to put together, I fail to see the difference. Yeah, one is legal and one isn't, but legality has nothing to do with morality.
If you think it's wrong for me to pirate software, do you think it's wrong for me to read pc magazine at the library to avoid paying for it? Is there any difference between using the library's encyclopedia to help with research paper and pirating a word processor to help with a research paper?
It has already been pointed out that there may be cases where your software would refuse run (keyserver crash, re-installation, sale of software/license to another).
If your software refuses to run, wouldn't this be a breach of contract? The software manufacturer has sold you a license so that you can use your software, but if the software prevents you from using it, the software company is in violation of the license. If I rent an appartment, and occasionally they changes the locks on the appartment so that I can't get in, this is clearly in violation of our contract, wouldn't it be the same for software?
It is a common technique to point out a few of your small flaws to establish honesty so that everything else you say is believed as well.
Next time Steve says that Windows * is better than linux, he wants people to say: "Steve Balmer acknowledges when other products are better than MS products, therefore this statement must be true"
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Not only does it fall under the category of unusual, but it's also cruel.
I don't know how you think criminals are usually punnished, but fines and/or jail time certainly isn't unusual, it's quite usual. Is it cruel? Well, maybe I should have used the argument that a fine was cruel to get out of my last speeding ticket. If your point was that fining someone for more damage than they did was cruel and unusual, you are wrong there as well. Fines, or punnishments for that matter, are meant to cost you more than you would gain from a crime because they are meant to deter people from the crime. Most states have littering laws of several hundred dollars. does dropping a can on the ground do several hundred dollars of damage? Does it costs hundreds of dollars to hire someone to pick the can up? No, but most people will think twice about littering if they know they can be fined hundreds of dollars, set the fine to ten cents, or however much it actually costs to clean up a can or a discarded piece of paper and you'll find that litter increases dramatically. If you steal $1,000 from someone (I'm not attempting to make a direct correlation between stealing from someone and piracy) your punnishment will probably be more severe than a $1,000 fine. If cheating on a test gives you 15 points that you would not have gotten without cheating, your school will probably punnish you in a much more severe manner than simply deducting 15 points from your score (assuming you're in college, grade schools don't seem to care much about cheating).
Being able to intercept the playback "is a reality of the music and PC industry," Unangst said. "It's like buying a pay-per-view movie and recording it on your VCR. People will still rent movies and buy CDs."
If they still think people will by CDs, why are they trying to market a secure music format? Their whole selling point was that CD sales will go down because someone can buy a CD and distribute the mp3 which will reduce sales, but now they're saying that because someone can buy a wma file and distribute it that this won't reduce sales?
The refresh rate should be 1/2 of the one stated by the TV since TV's are interlaced.
Your TV is limited to displaying
(num_of_pixels / sizeof(polygon)) * refresh_rate
polygons per second. Since the original poster stated that the size of a polygon in a typical benchmark is 3 pixels, it becomes a simple calculation to solve.
They take half your income because you work there. If you move to another country, your birth country won't be able to collect taxes from you.
If you have heart disease or heart injury you should not use it.
I believe you are mistaking what others are saying about the viral nature of the GPL as a knock against the GPL, so I'd like to preface this by saying that I think the GPL is better than the BSD license for the reasons you've already pointed out.
Virus is, for the most part, a pejorative word. When people refer to the GPL as viral, however, they refer to the way the GPL spreads, but they don't necessarily use the word in a negative fashion. When GPL'd code comes into contact with other code, it spreads the GPL to the other code -- this is why the GPL is viral.
A virus isn't necessarily bad; someone could conceivably write a computer virus which did something useful, but it would still be a virus even if it didn't do anything bad. In short: Viral != Bad.
But in fact moving the origin away from zero is common in such diagrams, and it is useful, because more space of the diragram is used for the differences instead of the 0..100% range that bears no information.
The use of a chart is to compare two or more items. It should give enough information at a glance to not only decide which item is (better|larger|faster) but also by how much. The part of the chart which "bears no information" is used so that you can interpret how much (better|larger|faster) one item is from another -- if one piece is twice as large as another it should be twice as (good|large|fast) as the other. When companies move the origin away from zero, the graph no longer serves that purpose. Sure, you can look at the numbers and do the math, but why not just post numbers instead along with big letters spelling out We Are Faster since that's the only information a non-zero-origin graph gives, it would even save the time spent downloading the graph. It may be common, but it is certainly intentionally deceitful.
HP wasn't interested in his computer design because it was a home computer and nobody used computers in their home at the time, only businesses used computers. It was like proposing a home forklift. There were a few geeks with computers, but they represented an insignificant part of the population, and they had them for the cool factor, not because there were many useful things they could do with them. Even the executives at Intel couldn't imagine that people would want to use computers in their homes. I remember a quote from one of the head Intel guys saying the only use they could think of for a personal computer was for a woman to store her recipes on.
It's tough now to think of a world without computers, but it wasn't too long ago when nobody owned a computer. As they say, hindsight is always 20/20.
Sure, mathematically they might be the same, but because of our depth perception, we are able to determine how large something actually is. I'm sitting about a foot and a half away from a 21" monitor right now, and downstairs I have a 52" tv which I sit at least six feet away from. Although the 21" monitor may take up more of my field of vision, the 52" screen still appears to be larger and is more appealing to watch. Sure, this may just be a psychological effect, but I'm sure most people would rather watch a movie from the back row of movie theater than sitting close to a 25" television regardless of field of vision.
The article said Microworkz is not going to overcommit this time around (limiting sales to 10K units in the next 2 months). This isn't a guarantee that they won't take two months to get your order, but I'm sure the company knows that if it gets a reputation for delaying orders over a month that they'll go out of business mighty quick.
I doubt the machines will be factory configured with a lot of net daemons running. The clueless newbies aren't going to want an ftpd running (and probably won't know what an ftpd is) so the machines won't have ftpd running by default, thus any future ftpd exploits won't affect them. (ftpd used as an example, same reasoning applied to other socket listening daemons).
With the falling prices in hardware, the cost of a windows 95 license from microsoft becomes increasingly significant. I think we will see lots of manufacturers using free operating systems on their low-end machines. When the people who have purchased a cheap machine decide to upgrade to a more expensive computer, they'll probably feel more comfortable with having linux or *BSD on their new machine rather than windows 95 because they are used to linux or *BSD (or whatever OS was on their cheap computer). This should not only dispel the rumors that linux is hard to use, but should also convince more computer manufacturers to offer linux on their entire line of computers.
Libraries exist so that we can read books and magazines without having to pay for them. Does this hurt the publishing companies? I'm sure it does, when I was in college I used to read magazines at the library that I would have had to subscribe to otherwise. There doesn't seem to be much of a difference between pirating a program to avoid paying for it, or reading a book/magazine at a library to avoid paying for it. Certainly there is a large legal difference since one is legal and the other is not, but can you imagine a system in which you were required to pay for every book and every magazine you needed to use? Why should it be any different for software?
We all seem to accept that we should not have to pay to read a book or magazine which a company has spent money to put together, but many people seem to think that we should have to pay to use software which a company has spent money to put together, I fail to see the difference. Yeah, one is legal and one isn't, but legality has nothing to do with morality.
If you think it's wrong for me to pirate software, do you think it's wrong for me to read pc magazine at the library to avoid paying for it? Is there any difference between using the library's encyclopedia to help with research paper and pirating a word processor to help with a research paper?
It has already been pointed out that there may be cases where your software would refuse run (keyserver crash, re-installation, sale of software/license to another).
If your software refuses to run, wouldn't this be a breach of contract? The software manufacturer has sold you a license so that you can use your software, but if the software prevents you from using it, the software company is in violation of the license. If I rent an appartment, and occasionally they changes the locks on the appartment so that I can't get in, this is clearly in violation of our contract, wouldn't it be the same for software?
It is a common technique to point out a few of your small flaws to establish honesty so that everything else you say is believed as well.
Next time Steve says that Windows * is better than linux, he wants people to say: "Steve Balmer acknowledges when other products are better than MS products, therefore this statement must be true"