[Offtopic]
Holy crap, that's multiple good posts by you in the last several days. I might have to drop you from my foe list (I wish I could remember how you got there in the first place.)
[/Offtopic]
I'll bite, first the four things you mention:
* Open source
* Open standards
* Cross-platform
* Extensible
Open standards are kind of important in the world of software. As for "many eyes make secure software myth" (seriously, are we still peddling that nonsense?), we'll be peddling this 'nonsense' for a long time because it's important. Security through secrecy doesn't work.
Just because Cross-platform and Extensible are things you do not care about doesn't make them useless features that are not important to the long term viability and growth of the application and user space. The only thing you mention that is of any relevance is that Lightning is a 0.x release and therefore not ready for all users yet. This is absolutely correct, and as such is not ready for using Thunderbird at work. You should be happy that the Lightning page doesn't make claims that it can't backup. It makes that very clear with the version number. In the meantime there will be those people that do care enough about Philosophy to help develop and test OSS applications in the hopes they can become a viable alternative.
At work i have dual 16:9 and at home dual 4:3. I honestly can't say which I prefer. Working in an IDE with property info on both sides of the code/design being viewed is nice on a widescrean monitor since it allows more text line width. Whereas on a 4:3 monitor, it allows more lines of text to be shown, but sometimes not as many property/information 'docks.' In an OS like Windows or Linux, where each window has it's own full menu bar, having dual monitors is definitely better. The people pitching their 30" apple displays likely run OS X and therefore fit more in line with the apple UI design decisions. As a developer it is just much easier to have two seperate monitors, since there is usually two windows that can each be run full screen. One last anecdote: those that do drawing/gui code know, that having a separate monitor to display the app's window makes debugging somewhat easier.
According to The Register the video's poster pulled the video. An interesting quote from the article: Sitthichai bemoaned: "We have told them [Google] how deeply offended Thais were by the clip, but they said there was much worse ridicule of President Bush on the site and they kept that there. I don't think they really care how we feel. Thailand is only a tiny market for them."
I can't comment on that I guess. I am not a mac user, I just assumed their OS 'Just Worked' for things like that. The mac freaks on slashdot don't like to talk about the flaws in their 'shiny' i guess.
Linux is far ahead in the server arena, an pure number cruncher stakes (which is what I use it for), but still behind in the home user experience. Unfashionable as that statement is, its true. Yes there are all the pieces, but how many versions of Linux are there? Is the Linux Standard Base adopted across the board yet? Nope? Well stop whining, Linux isn't ready for the the mainstream desktop. It needs to standardise. It goes beyond that. Until people can buy a card, place it in their computer, and install a proprietary driver (user mode or otherwise) and begin using it Linux will stay behind in the Desktop arena. I know this is a complex and very touchy issue, but it really should get addressed. If we choose not to allow such a thing than I really don't see how Linux could every reach the desktop in an open market with competing companies who have secrets to keep. On the other hand this does bode well for OS X and Solaris.
Interesting story, I feel for you, hell hath no wrath like a mac freak and his posse./. is quite an interesting community. It's still healthy, but it has several cold sores and no cream. There are things you can do to minimize this damage - like tweak the hell out of your preferences, set your threshold to 3, and never ever visit the apple pages. In the end, saying stuff like "Karma be damned but..." is one of several tricks to karma whore. Personally, I turned of my karma bonus, now most of my posts slip under the radar of people who want to mod down those they disagree with.
Also, "smug dickheads" drive all kinds of different cars, even 1300cc subcompacts. They mostly present themselves on the internet with arguments like yours or you can find them on the highway driving below the speed limit while in the passing lane. Well put. I will throw my hat in as saying that I want/need a car that has decent size. But my old car (3.8 liter engine) is well maintained, gets 30 miles per gallon, and I don't feel threatened by larger vehicles on the road. This pretentious dick (gp) should have been rated troll not insightful. There are enough stupid hippies around to mod him up though.
He even says this: (EmbeddedJanitor)As per my original posting, the obstacles to 100mpg cars are not technical, they are about perception of cars being for purposes other than transport. WTF? The problem is most definitely technical. How do we make a car get 100mpg and still be marketable? Gearing, Transmission, Engine, Aerodynamics (ie the whole Drivetrain) are all technical things. Not to mention we still need reliability, low cost and low emissions.
No point moderating you "-1 Redundant" since that would prove your point that people hate you, but you need to stop beating this drum over and over. This ESR gift culture is the result of having lived through experiences like the shutdown and loss of BeOS's code. After going through that I can honestly say that OSS/FSF is the way to go. I was young and naive, I purchased a BeOS professional release, Office software, and a game. I only was able to use this software for a year or two as my next machine wasn't supported. I only plan on having that happen to me once. As for/. fanboys there are less and less of the ESR/Unix/Linux people here everyday. Anyways, I don't want to flame, we should discuss this issue; but as such, that is my view that I learned the hard way.
It is a strongly worded REQUEST from people with lots of guns, a willingness to use them, and virtual immunity in court after the fact. I never sent anyone a request, don't bring me into this.
And that's precisely what I dislike about Post-9/11 Amerika. We know we live in a totalitarian state, but we don't know what the list of impermissible actions looks like. I can think of a lot of things that I dislike about "Post-9/11 Amerika" and that's not one of them.
Your example doesn't fit the current situation. Sometimes the reason large warranties are offered is supplemental as a promise to the customer that the products quality has gone up. Such as GM's recent 100,000 mile warranty. It is offered because it has become feasible. (This is the only thing GM can do though, since only their drivetrain is outstanding -not necessarily the other components.) If you look at recent reliability reports based on 2002 models you can see that models from GM have gotten much better, such as Buick.
This confidence has led to longer warranties. Sometimes these things take time to develop/notice, but the quality of companies like Toyota has slipped and the market will notice eventually. GM is just finally shedding the perception left by their cars from the 70s and 80s. Toyota and Honda however are riding on the perception they developed during the 80s and 90s but are now tarnishing. Recall numbers don't lie, even though Toyota chooses to use the term 'Service Bulletin'
Me either. I have seen them chillin around town and driving down the interstate - without a spec of dirt on them. Where I'm from anyone needing a 4x4 goes for something a little more... realistic. I live in a rural state where Hummers could be useful, but it appears as though the Hummer is a total flop since it has been canceled as a civilian option. It has created a brand name which I suppose allows GM to think it has succeeded - but both the H2 and H3 are pathetic offerings on many levels. At least the Texans can have F450s!! which can tow 24,000 lbs! Heh.
Profane...I usually like hearing what you have to say, and I definitely liked your recent JE on the libertarian view of the family. But global warming isn't an open and shut case. All of the models describing global temperature trends are chaotic non-linear systems. We can't predict what will happen in 5 or 10 or 100 years very well yet, and we may never be able to. There is a lot to factor in and we haven't seen enough data to know how accurate our guesses are (not to mention the medieval cooling period.)
"Now stop grinding the fucking axe already and move the fuck on." haha. well put. It is bad enough he wasted some of his own time trying to install linux and not knowing how to correct the issue once it went bad, but now he has wasted a lot of everyone elses time. I marked him as a foe, and I hope others see through this tirade.
I agree, it was just a joke. I'm posting as AC since you were modded Flamebait and I don't want to take a karma hit just because someone has sand in their vagina. ak3ldama (554026)
Metallica doesn't entirely suck at life. They release their live shows for $10 in DRM free MP3 or FLAC (flac is $13). These shows will basically be 2 cds long with decent sound quality for a decent price. From their site: (Live Metallica FAQ
"Can I share the files I buy at LiveMetallica.com? As you can all see, we have chosen not to encrypt or shackle these files in any way. There is a certain level of trust associated with LiveMetallica.com's operation.
You will have 48 hours from the time you start downloading to completely download each show you purchase. We'd be fooling ourselves to think that these files won't be shared by some friends, and there's nothing we can do to STOP you from doing so. All we can do is to ask you straight up: Do the right thing. Please be cool and don't share your files."
This is just for live shows, but I believe it sets a great example for how bands can share content with their fans and still make a little more $$. Though if someone spends close to $100 for a show he/she should probably get the shows download for free:-)
Replying to AC... man I'm dumb. Anyways, you are both right and wrong at the same time. There are people in each camp that don't want to jump to the next thing right away, but as you say OS X and Linux releases occur on a more frequent schedule and are incremental instead of experimental. But there are also Microsoft Windows fanboys out there that love to jump to the next big thing.
The only problem, is that because of the incredibly large size of the Windows user base and the 'nature' of that user base, the results you state are bound to happen. Of the windows user base that is more 'enthusiastic' by nature, they will jump to Vista and in the process start smoothing out the problems that will face the rest of the Windows user base once they buy a new pc and get the latest version (or upgrade their existing machine which usually doesn't happen.) The discussions we see on/. are skewed because of the group of people that visit here. I am sure that to the uninformed or under-informed that Windows Vista is something they would rather have on a new PC than XP. It's shiny, it has widgets(sidebar, etc), transparent borders, and it has a newer Alt-Tab functionality for some. To some that's enough.
"Most don't cream their pants the moment their company releases a new product or their CEO hypes their products like they're doing a frickin infomercial." I can say that I have seen people practically cream themselves over new Microsoft technology, even if it's been available to people for years through Open Source or otherwise. They live in their own little Microsoft bubble and they're happier if it stays that way. As has been said, Microsoft is the new IBM.
Slashdot Mirror
[Offtopic] Holy crap, that's multiple good posts by you in the last several days. I might have to drop you from my foe list (I wish I could remember how you got there in the first place.) [/Offtopic]
I'll bite, first the four things you mention:
* Open source
* Open standards
* Cross-platform
* Extensible
Open standards are kind of important in the world of software. As for "many eyes make secure software myth" (seriously, are we still peddling that nonsense?), we'll be peddling this 'nonsense' for a long time because it's important. Security through secrecy doesn't work.
Just because Cross-platform and Extensible are things you do not care about doesn't make them useless features that are not important to the long term viability and growth of the application and user space. The only thing you mention that is of any relevance is that Lightning is a 0.x release and therefore not ready for all users yet. This is absolutely correct, and as such is not ready for using Thunderbird at work. You should be happy that the Lightning page doesn't make claims that it can't backup. It makes that very clear with the version number. In the meantime there will be those people that do care enough about Philosophy to help develop and test OSS applications in the hopes they can become a viable alternative.
I don't see how this is moderated Troll, Funny maybe, but not Troll.
At work i have dual 16:9 and at home dual 4:3. I honestly can't say which I prefer. Working in an IDE with property info on both sides of the code/design being viewed is nice on a widescrean monitor since it allows more text line width. Whereas on a 4:3 monitor, it allows more lines of text to be shown, but sometimes not as many property/information 'docks.' In an OS like Windows or Linux, where each window has it's own full menu bar, having dual monitors is definitely better. The people pitching their 30" apple displays likely run OS X and therefore fit more in line with the apple UI design decisions. As a developer it is just much easier to have two seperate monitors, since there is usually two windows that can each be run full screen. One last anecdote: those that do drawing/gui code know, that having a separate monitor to display the app's window makes debugging somewhat easier.
According to The Register the video's poster pulled the video. An interesting quote from the article: Sitthichai bemoaned: "We have told them [Google] how deeply offended Thais were by the clip, but they said there was much worse ridicule of President Bush on the site and they kept that there. I don't think they really care how we feel. Thailand is only a tiny market for them."
I can't comment on that I guess. I am not a mac user, I just assumed their OS 'Just Worked' for things like that. The mac freaks on slashdot don't like to talk about the flaws in their 'shiny' i guess.
Linux is far ahead in the server arena, an pure number cruncher stakes (which is what I use it for), but still behind in the home user experience. Unfashionable as that statement is, its true. Yes there are all the pieces, but how many versions of Linux are there? Is the Linux Standard Base adopted across the board yet? Nope? Well stop whining, Linux isn't ready for the the mainstream desktop. It needs to standardise.
It goes beyond that. Until people can buy a card, place it in their computer, and install a proprietary driver (user mode or otherwise) and begin using it Linux will stay behind in the Desktop arena. I know this is a complex and very touchy issue, but it really should get addressed. If we choose not to allow such a thing than I really don't see how Linux could every reach the desktop in an open market with competing companies who have secrets to keep. On the other hand this does bode well for OS X and Solaris.
Interesting story, I feel for you, hell hath no wrath like a mac freak and his posse. /. is quite an interesting community. It's still healthy, but it has several cold sores and no cream. There are things you can do to minimize this damage - like tweak the hell out of your preferences, set your threshold to 3, and never ever visit the apple pages. In the end, saying stuff like "Karma be damned but..." is one of several tricks to karma whore. Personally, I turned of my karma bonus, now most of my posts slip under the radar of people who want to mod down those they disagree with.
Also, "smug dickheads" drive all kinds of different cars, even 1300cc subcompacts. They mostly present themselves on the internet with arguments like yours or you can find them on the highway driving below the speed limit while in the passing lane.
Well put. I will throw my hat in as saying that I want/need a car that has decent size. But my old car (3.8 liter engine) is well maintained, gets 30 miles per gallon, and I don't feel threatened by larger vehicles on the road. This pretentious dick (gp) should have been rated troll not insightful. There are enough stupid hippies around to mod him up though.
He even says this: (EmbeddedJanitor)As per my original posting, the obstacles to 100mpg cars are not technical, they are about perception of cars being for purposes other than transport. WTF? The problem is most definitely technical. How do we make a car get 100mpg and still be marketable? Gearing, Transmission, Engine, Aerodynamics (ie the whole Drivetrain) are all technical things. Not to mention we still need reliability, low cost and low emissions.
No point moderating you "-1 Redundant" since that would prove your point that people hate you, but you need to stop beating this drum over and over. This ESR gift culture is the result of having lived through experiences like the shutdown and loss of BeOS's code. After going through that I can honestly say that OSS/FSF is the way to go. I was young and naive, I purchased a BeOS professional release, Office software, and a game. I only was able to use this software for a year or two as my next machine wasn't supported. I only plan on having that happen to me once. As for /. fanboys there are less and less of the ESR/Unix/Linux people here everyday. Anyways, I don't want to flame, we should discuss this issue; but as such, that is my view that I learned the hard way.
It is a strongly worded REQUEST from people with lots of guns, a willingness to use them, and virtual immunity in court after the fact.
I never sent anyone a request, don't bring me into this.
And that's precisely what I dislike about Post-9/11 Amerika. We know we live in a totalitarian state, but we don't know what the list of impermissible actions looks like.
I can think of a lot of things that I dislike about "Post-9/11 Amerika" and that's not one of them.
\m/ ... you're not the only one!
Your example doesn't fit the current situation. Sometimes the reason large warranties are offered is supplemental as a promise to the customer that the products quality has gone up. Such as GM's recent 100,000 mile warranty. It is offered because it has become feasible. (This is the only thing GM can do though, since only their drivetrain is outstanding -not necessarily the other components.) If you look at recent reliability reports based on 2002 models you can see that models from GM have gotten much better, such as Buick.
This confidence has led to longer warranties. Sometimes these things take time to develop/notice, but the quality of companies like Toyota has slipped and the market will notice eventually. GM is just finally shedding the perception left by their cars from the 70s and 80s. Toyota and Honda however are riding on the perception they developed during the 80s and 90s but are now tarnishing. Recall numbers don't lie, even though Toyota chooses to use the term 'Service Bulletin'
Haha, oh how i wish i had mod points!
Me either. I have seen them chillin around town and driving down the interstate - without a spec of dirt on them. Where I'm from anyone needing a 4x4 goes for something a little more ... realistic. I live in a rural state where Hummers could be useful, but it appears as though the Hummer is a total flop since it has been canceled as a civilian option. It has created a brand name which I suppose allows GM to think it has succeeded - but both the H2 and H3 are pathetic offerings on many levels. At least the Texans can have F450s!! which can tow 24,000 lbs! Heh.
Profane...I usually like hearing what you have to say, and I definitely liked your recent JE on the libertarian view of the family. But global warming isn't an open and shut case. All of the models describing global temperature trends are chaotic non-linear systems. We can't predict what will happen in 5 or 10 or 100 years very well yet, and we may never be able to. There is a lot to factor in and we haven't seen enough data to know how accurate our guesses are (not to mention the medieval cooling period.)
"Now stop grinding the fucking axe already and move the fuck on."
haha. well put. It is bad enough he wasted some of his own time trying to install linux and not knowing how to correct the issue once it went bad, but now he has wasted a lot of everyone elses time. I marked him as a foe, and I hope others see through this tirade.
and i forgot to click post anonymously. doh
I agree, it was just a joke. I'm posting as AC since you were modded Flamebait and I don't want to take a karma hit just because someone has sand in their vagina.
ak3ldama (554026)
Dont the people of Turkey care? It is a Democracy. How can you have a democracy without criticizing those in power?
islam.
No.
Metallica doesn't entirely suck at life. They release their live shows for $10 in DRM free MP3 or FLAC (flac is $13). These shows will basically be 2 cds long with decent sound quality for a decent price. From their site: (Live Metallica FAQ
"Can I share the files I buy at LiveMetallica.com?
As you can all see, we have chosen not to encrypt or shackle these files in any way. There is a certain level of trust associated with LiveMetallica.com's operation.
You will have 48 hours from the time you start downloading to completely download each show you purchase. We'd be fooling ourselves to think that these files won't be shared by some friends, and there's nothing we can do to STOP you from doing so.
All we can do is to ask you straight up: Do the right thing. Please be cool and don't share your files."
This is just for live shows, but I believe it sets a great example for how bands can share content with their fans and still make a little more $$. Though if someone spends close to $100 for a show he/she should probably get the shows download for free :-)
Replying to AC ... man I'm dumb.
Anyways, you are both right and wrong at the same time. There are people in each camp that don't want to jump to the next thing right away, but as you say OS X and Linux releases occur on a more frequent schedule and are incremental instead of experimental. But there are also Microsoft Windows fanboys out there that love to jump to the next big thing.
The only problem, is that because of the incredibly large size of the Windows user base and the 'nature' of that user base, the results you state are bound to happen. Of the windows user base that is more 'enthusiastic' by nature, they will jump to Vista and in the process start smoothing out the problems that will face the rest of the Windows user base once they buy a new pc and get the latest version (or upgrade their existing machine which usually doesn't happen.) The discussions we see on /. are skewed because of the group of people that visit here. I am sure that to the uninformed or under-informed that Windows Vista is something they would rather have on a new PC than XP. It's shiny, it has widgets(sidebar, etc), transparent borders, and it has a newer Alt-Tab functionality for some. To some that's enough.
"Most don't cream their pants the moment their company releases a new product or their CEO hypes their products like they're doing a frickin infomercial."
I can say that I have seen people practically cream themselves over new Microsoft technology, even if it's been available to people for years through Open Source or otherwise. They live in their own little Microsoft bubble and they're happier if it stays that way. As has been said, Microsoft is the new IBM.
run to the hills, run for your life (while /. doesn't have a firm grip on you)
;-)