Right wing garbage... Re:I hate to point
on
U.S. Jobs Jumping Ship
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· Score: 0, Flamebait
Perhaps there is a tradeoff to unionized auto workers getting paid 20$ an hour for working basic assembly lines....
but we really have made doing business in this country incredibly difficult (especially small businesses). Haven't we asked for this?
You idiots on the right don't get it, do you? Why should any American, a resident of the richest country in the world with the greatest skills and capital resources, have to work for peanuts?
What is wrong is not the $20 an hour, but the car making. Making cars is not a high skilled job - let the cheaper labour markets make them. Design them instead. Better still, build the technologies that will stop your SUVs poisoning the planet.
And hey - get a social health care system, it will save you money - and lives - thus making your more competitive, not less.
It makes me laugh how the Americans - the inhabitants of a state founded on the revolutionary concept of liberty - are so phased by the idea of free trade and are always quick to see a conspiracy when lower skilled jobs (yes, folks, that's what they are) go abroad.
Having spent days hacking around with some perl code that my (non-IT literate) colleagues think is just magic, I know that this sort of thing is really not very high skill at all and so of course graduates in Bangalore could do it for less money.
In the mean time we ought to use our greater capital stock and education systems to learn even higher skills and stay ahead in the game.
Funny how all the comments on/. that question the basic ways in which society works are marked down as flamebait. The mods obviously are happy to question how capitalist society works when it throws up monopoly software houses, but don't go any further than that or else you're a goddam commie. (Yeh, mark me down as flamebait if you like, I got karma to burn and a world still to win)
Anyhow, the real benefit is from the additional efficency - if we can get more people from A to B more cheaply that produces a benefit. The real point, however, as the man with the beard might have said, is who gets that benefit? There is nothing wrong with the plane (apart from maybe the impact of auircraft fuel on the ozone layer and global warming) - what might be wrong are the choices we have made about the distribution of the benefits of advancing technology.
He would be right if Linux and OSS in general were awful, second rate stuff. But it isn't. Our model of intellectual property works - maybe even works better than their's - still rebooting your Win2k server every week??
I suspect that something like 90% of Slashdotters are using some sort of MS product somewhere.
So, what is your point? MS have been convicted of running an illegal monopoly and you do remember what a monopoly is?
At home I used to have a 'nix only network but I had to surrender and revive one of my old Windows boxes so the kids could use it - because that was the only way they could play on many of the websites they wanted to use.
In that sense, I suppose, MS was "better" than 'nix, but not because there was some inherent flaw in free software or because in some way MS were better code wizards.
1. GCC: My sense is that it is not a very high performance compiler - is that true? Would a better GCC make a big difference to the free software/oss world?
Seriously, folks. It's not MS that is the problem - it is the closed source model. MS just happens to be the biggest player in that world. But if someone else was pumping out software in this sort of closed source way then they too would be stumbling around.
The fact that only two member states have passed this into domestic law could well be a BAD thing, because the directive is now enforcible at the European Court of Justice. They may make a repressive ruling that will then automatically apply to all member states. For those from the US think of it this way - all the states have agreed to implement a law within two years - only two have done, but someone goes to the Supreme Court and seeks a ruling - that's where we are right now.
Well, firstly there is the inability of free software to make money. The argument that the money is in support doesn't really work for kids who expect to put the software in and have it go...
Then there is the way in which the console makers (2/3rds of the market says the article - and they are getting bigger) are acting to lock up their machines. You have to bow down to the Great God Microsoft to get something to run on the Xbox for instance.
And then...well it all comes back to the first part. Sure you might be able to make a little bit of money from a closed software game but to really hit the big time you need big bucks marketing.
The alternative - of destroying the commercial market through free software - the way in which Linux gives BillG nightmares - is stopped by point 2 (for now).
After all, if Sun cannot compete because Windows doesn't ship with Java, then neither can anyone else who doesn't have their software shipped with Windows.
You are Dan Quayle and I claim my $5.
How stupid are you? You should learn to read (and so check the facts) before you type. MS does ship Java with Windows, that's the whole point. But they deliberately ship a very out of date (aka broken) version to ensure that when Joe User tries to download a java applet or similar it won't work.
Being a monopoly is not illegal, however it does place additional restrictions on your buisness practices, which is what the DOJ (and pretty much everyone else) says Microsoft is violating.
I think that is what I said: an illegal monopoly. And it's not (just) the DOJ who say so - it's the law. Because that is what it means in a society where the law rules and the courts rule against you.
So in effect the wonderful EU system they have now is in all essence the same as the United states... The fed's make a law and the states HAVE to follow them...
OK, but I cannot resist faming this twit. The member states of the EU have already agreed to this directive. As part of their agreement they agreed to enact it in domestic law within a three year deadline. Now they have failed to do so they can be taken to court for failing to enact in national law something they had passed via directive.
So nobody has forced them to do anything, whatever you may think of the DMCA and the European directive the people to blame are you - either because you voted for the politicians who enacted the law, you couldn't be bothered to vote or you didn't get politically active and persuade enough people to vote...or maybe you are wrong?
Those posters who suggest that the courts getting involved might not be good have missed the point: MS is operating an (illegal) monopoly. 98% of the world's computer users are using their software. If MS don't like you, you get screwed, so the courts' intervention can only be a good thing. In a future world where we using all sorts of different OSes and relying on standards to interact then maybe court intervention might be problematic. But we aren't there and we aren't geoing to there for many, many, years to come.
Re:There's no point to this article...
on
Euro DMCA Fails
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· Score: 2
It's not strictly true that the law can be applied immediately the directive is passed - that is what the deadline is for. But yes, anyone could now take their government to the ECJ Court of the First Instance and complain about non-compliance.
In Europe, the telcos use SMS as a cash cow - it's unregulated (regulatory regimes were built in the age of analogue comms) and they rip you off. And it's already taxed (VAT) - it's time the companies charge a more realistic price (15 cents a text message is a typical price today).
Don't you get it? 90% + of all computer users are using IE, that means a hole there is mega important. Now, I wish it were the case that holes in MySQL and other free software were as important, but with the exception of a few things (such as Apache) we aren't there yet. But don't worry, the day will come when free/OSS software rules the world and then these things will be all over the front page. And guess what, because we can see the sources we will be able to fix them too.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps there is a tradeoff to unionized auto workers getting paid 20$ an hour for working basic assembly lines ....
but we really have made doing business in this country incredibly difficult (especially small businesses). Haven't we asked for this?
You idiots on the right don't get it, do you? Why should any American, a resident of the richest country in the world with the greatest skills and capital resources, have to work for peanuts?
What is wrong is not the $20 an hour, but the car making. Making cars is not a high skilled job - let the cheaper labour markets make them. Design them instead. Better still, build the technologies that will stop your SUVs poisoning the planet.
And hey - get a social health care system, it will save you money - and lives - thus making your more competitive, not less.
It makes me laugh how the Americans - the inhabitants of a state founded on the revolutionary concept of liberty - are so phased by the idea of free trade and are always quick to see a conspiracy when lower skilled jobs (yes, folks, that's what they are) go abroad.
Having spent days hacking around with some perl code that my (non-IT literate) colleagues think is just magic, I know that this sort of thing is really not very high skill at all and so of course graduates in Bangalore could do it for less money.
In the mean time we ought to use our greater capital stock and education systems to learn even higher skills and stay ahead in the game.
Yes, I know it's tough on the staff - but in reality the whole pyramid-selling scam that was the dot.com bubble is something we are well rid of.
Now, BYTE, well, that was a loss.
Funny how all the comments on /. that question the basic ways in which society works are marked down as flamebait. The mods obviously are happy to question how capitalist society works when it throws up monopoly software houses, but don't go any further than that or else you're a goddam commie. (Yeh, mark me down as flamebait if you like, I got karma to burn and a world still to win)
Anyhow, the real benefit is from the additional efficency - if we can get more people from A to B more cheaply that produces a benefit. The real point, however, as the man with the beard might have said, is who gets that benefit? There is nothing wrong with the plane (apart from maybe the impact of auircraft fuel on the ozone layer and global warming) - what might be wrong are the choices we have made about the distribution of the benefits of advancing technology.
He would be right if Linux and OSS in general were awful, second rate stuff. But it isn't. Our model of intellectual property works - maybe even works better than their's - still rebooting your Win2k server every week??
I suspect that something like 90% of Slashdotters are using some sort of MS product somewhere.
So, what is your point? MS have been convicted of running an illegal monopoly and you do remember what a monopoly is?
At home I used to have a 'nix only network but I had to surrender and revive one of my old Windows boxes so the kids could use it - because that was the only way they could play on many of the websites they wanted to use.
In that sense, I suppose, MS was "better" than 'nix, but not because there was some inherent flaw in free software or because in some way MS were better code wizards.
I have to say that the web site for the summit has the flavour of both the snake-oil salesman and the loony right millenarian.
All that is missing is the exhorting not to put your money under the bed - because that's where the commies are.
That's it.
1. GCC: My sense is that it is not a very high performance compiler - is that true? Would a better GCC make a big difference to the free software/oss world?
2. Does the Watcom WIN32 binary run under WINE?
The Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS) is the premiere OS for the enterprise
Do they mean premier? They need a new PR company.
Seriously, folks. It's not MS that is the problem - it is the closed source model. MS just happens to be the biggest player in that world. But if someone else was pumping out software in this sort of closed source way then they too would be stumbling around.
Courts do make the law. That is what the rule of law is about.
The fact that only two member states have passed this into domestic law could well be a BAD thing, because the directive is now enforcible at the European Court of Justice. They may make a repressive ruling that will then automatically apply to all member states. For those from the US think of it this way - all the states have agreed to implement a law within two years - only two have done, but someone goes to the Supreme Court and seeks a ruling - that's where we are right now.
It would also create millions of jobs - where do you think that money would go?
Into the hands of those making environmentally friendly technologies - something which the US ought to be good at.
Am I the only one who thinks maybe we could do with a few extra jobs right now? Or maybe people think tax cuts for the rich are a better buy?
What difference would that make? After all 500,000 more Americans voted for Gore than Bush.
And if you are black then the law is used to bar you from voting in any case.
Well, firstly there is the inability of free software to make money. The argument that the money is in support doesn't really work for kids who expect to put the software in and have it go...
Then there is the way in which the console makers (2/3rds of the market says the article - and they are getting bigger) are acting to lock up their machines. You have to bow down to the Great God Microsoft to get something to run on the Xbox for instance.
And then...well it all comes back to the first part. Sure you might be able to make a little bit of money from a closed software game but to really hit the big time you need big bucks marketing.
The alternative - of destroying the commercial market through free software - the way in which Linux gives BillG nightmares - is stopped by point 2 (for now).
After all, if Sun cannot compete because Windows doesn't ship with Java, then neither can anyone else who doesn't have their software shipped with Windows.
You are Dan Quayle and I claim my $5.
How stupid are you? You should learn to read (and so check the facts) before you type. MS does ship Java with Windows, that's the whole point. But they deliberately ship a very out of date (aka broken) version to ensure that when Joe User tries to download a java applet or similar it won't work.
Being a monopoly is not illegal, however it does place additional restrictions on your buisness practices, which is what the DOJ (and pretty much everyone else) says Microsoft is violating.
I think that is what I said: an illegal monopoly. And it's not (just) the DOJ who say so - it's the law. Because that is what it means in a society where the law rules and the courts rule against you.
Why should Sun get special treatment?
Becuase MS are shipping a broken version of their product.
So in effect the wonderful EU system they have now is in all essence the same as the United states... The fed's make a law and the states HAVE to follow them...
OK, but I cannot resist faming this twit. The member states of the EU have already agreed to this directive. As part of their agreement they agreed to enact it in domestic law within a three year deadline. Now they have failed to do so they can be taken to court for failing to enact in national law something they had passed via directive.
So nobody has forced them to do anything, whatever you may think of the DMCA and the European directive the people to blame are you - either because you voted for the politicians who enacted the law, you couldn't be bothered to vote or you didn't get politically active and persuade enough people to vote...or maybe you are wrong?
Those posters who suggest that the courts getting involved might not be good have missed the point: MS is operating an (illegal) monopoly. 98% of the world's computer users are using their software. If MS don't like you, you get screwed, so the courts' intervention can only be a good thing. In a future world where we using all sorts of different OSes and relying on standards to interact then maybe court intervention might be problematic. But we aren't there and we aren't geoing to there for many, many, years to come.
It's not strictly true that the law can be applied immediately the directive is passed - that is what the deadline is for. But yes, anyone could now take their government to the ECJ Court of the First Instance and complain about non-compliance.
Anyone care to comment on Bochs versus WINE or emus versus VMs?
In Europe, the telcos use SMS as a cash cow - it's unregulated (regulatory regimes were built in the age of analogue comms) and they rip you off. And it's already taxed (VAT) - it's time the companies charge a more realistic price (15 cents a text message is a typical price today).
Don't you get it? 90% + of all computer users are using IE, that means a hole there is mega important. Now, I wish it were the case that holes in MySQL and other free software were as important, but with the exception of a few things (such as Apache) we aren't there yet. But don't worry, the day will come when free/OSS software rules the world and then these things will be all over the front page. And guess what, because we can see the sources we will be able to fix them too.