I've been following this whole debate, and it really seems like no one understands that China is a soveriegn country that has its own laws and rules. They may not completely mesh with those of the western world, but it's not our job to decide if they're right. They have the absolute right to demand that search engines alter their results in order to do business in the country.
If you were the one whose family the government jailed, or the one shat on by the powerful without any recourse, or the one imprisoned without a fair trial, or the one harmed for publishing dissenting views, I think you would think differently. It does matter that China has a lousy human rights record because we have a moral duty to help others who are being murdered or oppressed. Your reasoning is identical to IBM's before WWII or the people at numerous points in history who shrug off the atrocities as others as someone else's problem. When one person is oppressed, it is everybody's problem.
why chew up bandwidth to listen to someone else pick songs you don't really want to listen to?
I listen to internet radio to discover new bands or fresh music styles. I suspect that many of us, even those who have thousands of songs like myself, want something original at times. For example, KCRW, a public station in LA, plays tremendously interesting stuff on their music-only stream all day long.
People as individuals help change the milieu in which they exist. If more individuals choose not to use Microsoft products, the problems you implicitly assume in your post -- including software availability and file incompatibility -- would decrease with time. The 90% of the rest of the world wouldn't have the problem they do now.
Each person has the power of choice in their dollars, their time and their votes. If enough people don't buy Windows, change will enable the other 90% you cite not to buy Windows either.
Your statement is a classic case of logical fallacy called ad hominem tu quoque.(sic)
Your statement is a classic example of the logical fallacy no humorus tu assholio de Slashdot. In this fallacy, someone fails to get a joke and thus responds to an absurd or amusing post in a serious way. Moderators, such as the one who gave you +1 Insightful, also sometimes suffer from this malady.
Why do most people on here take it for granted that anyone with programming skills wants to do open source projects? Why can't you suggest he work on whatever he wants and maybe even sell it for a few bucks?
I don't assume he wants to work on open source projects, but I do offer it as a suggestion. The OP sounds like he isn't particularly motivated by money, which lessens the motivation to sell something, and I think open source is an inherently more altrustic endeavor. He also decides what to contribute and how, so he can evaluate how to best use his CS skills to a much greater degree than the vast majority of companies.
In addition, if the OP wants to contribute in a way that will impact many people, Linux, OpenOffice, Abiword, Mozilla, *BSDs and others already have millions of users. All those worthwhile products need all the talent they can get.
Finally, if he's selling a product, his employer is more likely to want a piece of the action, and it is more likely that the contracts some other responders to my post mentioned will affect him. Given these considerations, open source makes sense. Obviously, if he doesn't want to, he shouldn't, but open source is an avenue to the destination that the OP sounds like he wants to reach.
Funny you write that -- I received an e-mail from Apple on Feb. 3 promoting iPods, and the headline says "Sweep yourself off your feet." The iPod's headphones split to form a heart. Reading that e-mail made me wonder about the loneliness of modern societies, which marketers apparently think they can exploit through trying to create a greater connection between a person and a company than a person and a person. Will an iPod really assuage anyone's feelings at being left out of Valentine's Day?
Pretty much anything that makes you different will get you made fun of, actually.
Since there is no absolute normal, it sounds like your argument applies to everyone -- to be alive and exist with others means that one will be teased, and probably tease others too.
When I read your blurb on the homepage, "yes" leapt to my mind. Reading this, however, changed my mind:
From the looks of it, I've got the perfect job: high pay, extravagant benefits and bonuses, flexi-time, can telecommute whenever possible, and best of all the coworkers are great and have truly become my friends, even the boss.
Most people would kill for job conditions like those. The excellence of your coworkers and boss in particular makes me inclined to say that you should stay. If you feel your CS degree is wasted, work on open source projects or try to bring open source into your organization. There are a myriad of ways to apply your knowledge without necessarily quitting your job. The dissatisfaction you experience may not be alleviated in your new job and if your boss and/or coworkers are worse, you'll regret the switch.
Plus, I think people might be pissed if you told them that their 40GB iPods would only hold about 50 CDs worth of music. Then again, maybe not.
I use a laptop and only have an 80GB (well, 74.5 after marketing-speak is removed, but that's another post) HD. I'd be pissed if I had to use half of it to store 50 CDs of music. Instead I probably have about 350 CDs worth of MP3s that fill about 30GB. Using less than perfect speakers obviates any advantage the CD would have anyway. Actually, the speakers I have say "High precision and wide dynamic range for amazing MP3 and Internet audio" on the box, and I laugh at that every time I read it.
Anyway, the parent makes a good point, and one that a lot of people posting on this thread ignore or don't entirely grasp.
It is silly and fun, but it's slashdotted right now. Maybe someone else will restore its content to its rightful place on the net. Maybe some third person, such as the editor of this site, will learn the difference between "its" and "it's."
As for the grandparent post, both parties are happy with dumb voters. Nothing's better than someone who will consistently vote for a particular name or issue for little reason at all.
To extend your tangent, I think you give citizens too much credit. The political parties really want "safe" districts where the opposition doesn't bother to vote at all. The apathetic non-voters might be even worse than the apathetic voters.
One culprit may be the expansion of higher education: 100 years ago, only the extraordinarily well-prepared elite attended college. Today, a much larger percentage -- 33%? -- attend, meaning that the quality of the people entering is probably lower than it was, simply because everyone does.
Of course, there could be other explanations, but I'm suspicious of drawing conclusions like the one above.
In terms of evolution maybe the soceities where these things are allowed to happen should not be the ones to survive...
That's a fine view in the abstract, until you or someone you care about is the victim of the kinds of practices described in the grandparent post. Every problem is somebody else's problem until it happens to you.
Apparently compassion isn't a virtue to some posters in this thread.
Before telling me to check my facts, maybe you should check yours, or at least read the very article you cite. It states: "May marks the first time notebooks have outsold desktops over the course of a full month, the firm said."
Considering that *most* computer sales are laptops
This is wrong. Most computer sales are desktops. The WSJ had an article about that very issue a few months ago. The absolute number of desktops purchased is far higher than the number of laptops. It is true, though, that laptop sales are increasing faster as a percentage than desktop sales, and at sometime in the future they may pass desktop sales. It's also true that the laptop/desktop split changes if you consider the amount of money spent in dollar terms, since laptops are generally more expensive than desktops.
It's truly baffling that you can buy a $2000 Mac and not even end up with a basic word processing program or spreadsheet on it -- especially when that software can be had for free.
I understand that you're talking about preloaded software, but remember that you can run Abiword or the X11 version of OpenOffice. I'd wager that most software for Linux one can get precompiled for OS X, but that most OS X software isn't available for Linux.
Note that I disagree with your central point concerning the appropriateness of Linux for the project. But I think you underestimate the range of OS X software available.
Gary Becker is a Nobel prize winner economist and Richard Posner is, I presume, an equally important lawyer.
Richard Posner is actually a judge these days, and, IIRC, a member of the faculty at a pretty big deal law school (University of Chicago?). He's also written numerous books on topics that range from the law to sex to the failure of U.S. intelligence agencies to predict the 9/11 attacks. Sometimes he also writes book reviews for various publications, including the New York Times Book Review.
Five bucks a month might get you everything now, but if you cancel you lose it all. I probably spend less than $5 per month on average on music, and get to keep all of it forever. Furthermore, although Yahoo may charge $5 a month now, when they eventually raise the price you'll either put up with it or quit.
Right now, I can buy a Dell Dimension with XP home preinstalled, spend a half-hour uninstalling all the useless crap they load on there, and get the machine into a relatively professional state. If I want a machine that comes in a professional state, I have to pay a significant premium for an OptiPlex or something.
Right now, I can buy a Mac mini for $500, spend 0 hours on setup and $0 per year on anti-virus software. It comes in a "relatively professional state."
While I'm certain this statement is factually correct (it can't help but be), I nevertheless find myself wondering just what multiple Romney is alluding to here. Three? Ten? Two-fiths?
According to The Economist's 2005 Pocket World in Figures, the largest populations in the world in 2002 were:
1. China - 1,294.4
2. India - 1,041.1
3. The United States - 288.5
4 - Indonesia 217.5.
Then it trails off. To answer your question, the combined total of the top two countries is about eight times the US population.
As I understand it, the First Folio was a collection of notes taken by illegal transcribers at Shakespeare's plays, right?
No. You're probably confusing the First Folio (F1) with some Quarto editions. For example, modern editions of Hamlet generally don't exactly match any known copy of Hamlet, but rather take most of the text from F1, and perhaps a little text from the First Quarto (Q1) and Second Quarto (Q2). Q1 is generally considered the "bad" quarto, because the play is much shorter and its text corrupted. Theories as to where it came from abound -- actors playing minor characters is the most probable one, but barring time travel we'll never know. Q2 may be a more official (possibly by Shakespeare himself, possibly not) to correct Q1. Still, neither is as complete as F1, which was completed in 1623, years after Shakespeare's death.
I believe there are two complete copies of F1 in existance: one at the British Museum and one somewhere else, though I could be wrong on the locations. Other plays sometimes come from F1 and from quarto versions, but F1 is generally considered the most authortative source. There were also some later Folio editions in the seventeenth century. Bauman Rare Books, a New York dealer, recently had a Fourth Folio edition for sale for a couple hundred thousand.
With a few exceptions -- OS X and MSO -- I don't buy my software. I write it myself or go to sourceforge.net. As a larger number of easier to use OSS packages make their way to the mainsteam -- Firefox, I'm looking at you -- I suspect more people will move into my camp than vice-versa.
Slashdot Mirror
If you were the one whose family the government jailed, or the one shat on by the powerful without any recourse, or the one imprisoned without a fair trial, or the one harmed for publishing dissenting views, I think you would think differently. It does matter that China has a lousy human rights record because we have a moral duty to help others who are being murdered or oppressed. Your reasoning is identical to IBM's before WWII or the people at numerous points in history who shrug off the atrocities as others as someone else's problem. When one person is oppressed, it is everybody's problem.
I listen to internet radio to discover new bands or fresh music styles. I suspect that many of us, even those who have thousands of songs like myself, want something original at times. For example, KCRW, a public station in LA, plays tremendously interesting stuff on their music-only stream all day long.
Each person has the power of choice in their dollars, their time and their votes. If enough people don't buy Windows, change will enable the other 90% you cite not to buy Windows either.
Your statement is a classic example of the logical fallacy no humorus tu assholio de Slashdot. In this fallacy, someone fails to get a joke and thus responds to an absurd or amusing post in a serious way. Moderators, such as the one who gave you +1 Insightful, also sometimes suffer from this malady.
I don't assume he wants to work on open source projects, but I do offer it as a suggestion. The OP sounds like he isn't particularly motivated by money, which lessens the motivation to sell something, and I think open source is an inherently more altrustic endeavor. He also decides what to contribute and how, so he can evaluate how to best use his CS skills to a much greater degree than the vast majority of companies.
In addition, if the OP wants to contribute in a way that will impact many people, Linux, OpenOffice, Abiword, Mozilla, *BSDs and others already have millions of users. All those worthwhile products need all the talent they can get.
Finally, if he's selling a product, his employer is more likely to want a piece of the action, and it is more likely that the contracts some other responders to my post mentioned will affect him. Given these considerations, open source makes sense. Obviously, if he doesn't want to, he shouldn't, but open source is an avenue to the destination that the OP sounds like he wants to reach.
Funny you write that -- I received an e-mail from Apple on Feb. 3 promoting iPods, and the headline says "Sweep yourself off your feet." The iPod's headphones split to form a heart. Reading that e-mail made me wonder about the loneliness of modern societies, which marketers apparently think they can exploit through trying to create a greater connection between a person and a company than a person and a person. Will an iPod really assuage anyone's feelings at being left out of Valentine's Day?
Since there is no absolute normal, it sounds like your argument applies to everyone -- to be alive and exist with others means that one will be teased, and probably tease others too.
From the looks of it, I've got the perfect job: high pay, extravagant benefits and bonuses, flexi-time, can telecommute whenever possible, and best of all the coworkers are great and have truly become my friends, even the boss.
Most people would kill for job conditions like those. The excellence of your coworkers and boss in particular makes me inclined to say that you should stay. If you feel your CS degree is wasted, work on open source projects or try to bring open source into your organization. There are a myriad of ways to apply your knowledge without necessarily quitting your job. The dissatisfaction you experience may not be alleviated in your new job and if your boss and/or coworkers are worse, you'll regret the switch.
I use a laptop and only have an 80GB (well, 74.5 after marketing-speak is removed, but that's another post) HD. I'd be pissed if I had to use half of it to store 50 CDs of music. Instead I probably have about 350 CDs worth of MP3s that fill about 30GB. Using less than perfect speakers obviates any advantage the CD would have anyway. Actually, the speakers I have say "High precision and wide dynamic range for amazing MP3 and Internet audio" on the box, and I laugh at that every time I read it.
Anyway, the parent makes a good point, and one that a lot of people posting on this thread ignore or don't entirely grasp.
If weight is the issue, I think you've identified the problem.
Considering that Saab is owned by GM and Volvo is owned by Ford, I don't think the "Swedish" automobile industry is as important as you think.
It is silly and fun, but it's slashdotted right now. Maybe someone else will restore its content to its rightful place on the net. Maybe some third person, such as the editor of this site, will learn the difference between "its" and "it's."
To extend your tangent, I think you give citizens too much credit. The political parties really want "safe" districts where the opposition doesn't bother to vote at all. The apathetic non-voters might be even worse than the apathetic voters.
Of course, there could be other explanations, but I'm suspicious of drawing conclusions like the one above.
And if the code generates apple and DRM, one gets logic errors and tortured arguments like the ones that fill this thread.
That's a fine view in the abstract, until you or someone you care about is the victim of the kinds of practices described in the grandparent post. Every problem is somebody else's problem until it happens to you.
Apparently compassion isn't a virtue to some posters in this thread.
Before telling me to check my facts, maybe you should check yours, or at least read the very article you cite. It states: "May marks the first time notebooks have outsold desktops over the course of a full month, the firm said."
This is wrong. Most computer sales are desktops. The WSJ had an article about that very issue a few months ago. The absolute number of desktops purchased is far higher than the number of laptops. It is true, though, that laptop sales are increasing faster as a percentage than desktop sales, and at sometime in the future they may pass desktop sales. It's also true that the laptop/desktop split changes if you consider the amount of money spent in dollar terms, since laptops are generally more expensive than desktops.
I understand that you're talking about preloaded software, but remember that you can run Abiword or the X11 version of OpenOffice. I'd wager that most software for Linux one can get precompiled for OS X, but that most OS X software isn't available for Linux.
Note that I disagree with your central point concerning the appropriateness of Linux for the project. But I think you underestimate the range of OS X software available.
Richard Posner is actually a judge these days, and, IIRC, a member of the faculty at a pretty big deal law school (University of Chicago?). He's also written numerous books on topics that range from the law to sex to the failure of U.S. intelligence agencies to predict the 9/11 attacks. Sometimes he also writes book reviews for various publications, including the New York Times Book Review.
Five bucks a month might get you everything now, but if you cancel you lose it all. I probably spend less than $5 per month on average on music, and get to keep all of it forever. Furthermore, although Yahoo may charge $5 a month now, when they eventually raise the price you'll either put up with it or quit.
Right now, I can buy a Mac mini for $500, spend 0 hours on setup and $0 per year on anti-virus software. It comes in a "relatively professional state."
According to The Economist's 2005 Pocket World in Figures, the largest populations in the world in 2002 were:
1. China - 1,294.4
2. India - 1,041.1
3. The United States - 288.5
4 - Indonesia 217.5.
Then it trails off. To answer your question, the combined total of the top two countries is about eight times the US population.
No. You're probably confusing the First Folio (F1) with some Quarto editions. For example, modern editions of Hamlet generally don't exactly match any known copy of Hamlet, but rather take most of the text from F1, and perhaps a little text from the First Quarto (Q1) and Second Quarto (Q2). Q1 is generally considered the "bad" quarto, because the play is much shorter and its text corrupted. Theories as to where it came from abound -- actors playing minor characters is the most probable one, but barring time travel we'll never know. Q2 may be a more official (possibly by Shakespeare himself, possibly not) to correct Q1. Still, neither is as complete as F1, which was completed in 1623, years after Shakespeare's death.
I believe there are two complete copies of F1 in existance: one at the British Museum and one somewhere else, though I could be wrong on the locations. Other plays sometimes come from F1 and from quarto versions, but F1 is generally considered the most authortative source. There were also some later Folio editions in the seventeenth century. Bauman Rare Books, a New York dealer, recently had a Fourth Folio edition for sale for a couple hundred thousand.
With a few exceptions -- OS X and MSO -- I don't buy my software. I write it myself or go to sourceforge.net. As a larger number of easier to use OSS packages make their way to the mainsteam -- Firefox, I'm looking at you -- I suspect more people will move into my camp than vice-versa.