I'm not sure who is stupider, the Italian prosecutor for bringing this case, or the guy who went to a country where there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest.
The latter.
It's about time Americans realised that the rest of the world is comprised of sovereign states not subject to their jurisdiction. I consider this a bit of a trivial case, but there are much more extreme manifestations of this attitude, such as rendition and detention without charge.
It's not an acceptable excuse to say "it's OK for us to do it because we're the Good Guys", because much of the world has good reason to doubt that.
"Congratulations! By responding to this test email, you've received an IRS coupon for a FREE TAX AUDIT. Enjoy!"
I know you're being funny, but a stick approach might in this case be more efficacious than the carrot. The submission naively suggests that ...it is precisely the latter who are more likely to respond to further fake spam messages in the future, allowing the process to be repeated as often as necessary
...when experience shows us that greed will often override common-sense. An example uppermost in my mind is where people repeatedly sink money into Nigerian scams AFTER they were already aware that the thing was likely to be a con.
I often think this kind of thing is a good argument for chlorinating the gene pool, or at least retrospective abortion...
But whenever anything untoward occurs as a result of new releases of the Linux kernel, nVidia have (in my experience) always been proactive in providing a solution.
I have been using nVidia graphics cards on my frequently-updated Linux boxen for 10 years or so, and have yet to find a kernel issue they haven't addressed before I got around to upgrading.
And yes, I run NeoOffice but it doesn't quite handle Office files properly in all cases so I can't rely on it for critical client work.
That really doesn't make sense. If layout is so critical, just export it to PDF. NeoOffice/OpenOffice even give you a handy button to do that directly. If your clients can't deal with PDF, they might just as well crawl into their own graves and pull the soil over their heads.
being able to use the 64 bit processor instead of being stuck with only a 32 bit OS on a 64 bit pc...
Well, to be fair, by staying with 32-bit, a probable majority of users might appreciate not being forced to address more memory than they can afford. Sure, there are lots of applications where 64-bit is great, but browsing the net and sending emails just isn't that demanding.
But the scary thing (for me) is that I was completely like a fish out of water for a few moments while I re-aligned my remaining neurons to an earlier decade when Google was not pre-eminent among browsers. Reminded myself that there are other search engines out there, and that MSN still doesn't figure among them...:-)
The problem is that American capitalism has already had far too much success in persuading other countries that US law (particularly with regard to IP) applies to everyone else too.
It's often a precondition of so-called "free-trade" agreements that usually result in everyone except the US getting shafted. Hence here in Australia, our FTA has saddled us with IP agreements which are recognised by our own legislative committees approximately as "lamentably and inexcusably flawed". I'm too lazy to check that exact quote, but it's out there in public domain.
...just so that they will work in a program I never ever intend to use?
The only times I have ever used mc have been by accident. I have an occasional tendency to hit the "c" key instead of "v", so have found myself somewhere else when all I wanted to do was move a file.
Rape analogies are dangerous, but we could pursue this one:
(1) In most Western cultures, women who dress provocatively have been considered in their respective judicial systems to have contributed to their rape.
(2) Despite repeated "common-sense" warnings for avoiding being scammed on the internet, people still get sucked in by obviously fraudulent behaviour.
I'm not passing judgement on either, but the comparison is worth consideration...
There's some skill involved and you have to know details about vulnerabilities and how to exploit them.
Indeed. Many moons ago (back in the early 1980s, when "IBM PCs" were still new and beginning to be affordable) I was a security consultant to a certain large technology company not far west of London. Part of my brief was to write aggressive self-replicating routines in an attempt to disrupt crackers' activities. Thus I might claim credit for a few of the earliest viruses, but that's not really my point, which is that in those days work like this was done in assembly code, and as such was reasonably challenging. I was quite proud of it for that reason.
I haven't kept up with this particular technology, but I gather viruses such as these are a lot easier to craft now, particularly since users don't typically notice small (or even large) drains on resources any more.
Regardless of whether or not one admires botmasters' motives (and I don't) crafting botnets on a large scale has a certain "cool" factor, since there is quite a lot of work, skill and even artistry involved in setting them up.
and exists only as an excellent example of M$ screwing over their customers again.
What customers? Microsoft have only just released the Zune for sale in Canada, and it is as yet still unavailable elsewhere in the world. I'm not even remotely interested in buying one, but to me it appears as if MS just isn't serious about the Zune.
I would surmise that it could be more of an attempt to somehow confuse pontential iPod buyers rather than do anything worthwhile in their own right.
I do have 20/20 vision (or I did before I started welding, so maybe not)
Quite possibly. I used to be a blacksmith, which (if you're good at it) involves quite a bit of fire-welding (forge-welding) as well as occasional TIG/MIG, and although the radiation involved is not as much in the spectrum of an arc (no appreciable UV), I am almost convinced it takes its toll after a few years. But I guess it could just be old age galloping up close behind me...;-)
Speaking for myself (I do not have 20/20 vision, but with glasses I get by OK), I often have to struggle to read captchas, and I have got to the stage where I will sometimes only persist with that website if they have something I really want. At this point, where captchas are almost easier for machines to read than for us, they become self-defeating, and it is time to find a different means to filter out spammers.
I'm a technology trainer (mostly Adobe and Apple stuff), and I can tell you Windows ego centrism is one of the largest roadblocks to learning there is. Just because something doesn't work the way YOU are used to, doesn't mean YOUR way is better.
Get off your high horse.
I have been using Unix since the 1970s (along with many other operating systems you probably have never even heard of), I have used Linux since about 1995, and I have used Windows from time to time since Windows 3.0, if you can call that an operating system. I have also been using OS X for about 3 years.
I can cope, believe me. Perhaps you should go back and read my post again before pontificating about my trainability. Actually, the hell with that. We were all expected to hit the ground running with Fortran, ADA, Assembler and a plethora of languages that never stood the test of time, and guess what? We had to do it by Reading the Fine Manuals.
Muttermutter "technology trainer (mostly Adobe and Apple stuff)" young whippersnapper, muttermutter, get off my lawn...:-)
...and I'd like to see an OS that was even more document oriented. Trends come and go but Windows, and Linux to some extent, lean toward promoting the application over the document.
Well, I know I mentioned X11 in my earlier post - note, I didn't say Linux (just a kernel yada yada) - but it seems to me that it wouldn't be an insurmountable task to put such a document oriented windowing system on top of X11. After all, the latter is really pretty much there to provide a useful rendering system. In fact, if I understand it correctly, it should be a relatively straightforward (if tedious) job with Gnome and GTK+.
Whether in fact it would be worth the trouble is another matter. Most of us can adapt to the differences in approach and manage to maintain a quorum of neurons...
I'm still yet to see a single mote of evidence that Microsoft bothers to astroturf Slashdot.
Nor do I, and I am certainly not going to audit every post to find out. I've got getter things to do.
But in this case it is hardly the point; the article referenced by the OP is actually reasonably balanced, and certainly doesn't qualify as a shill or an attempt to astroturf.
every Mac application is an MDI application, only the outer "application" window is always maximized and always transparent
I don't know how clear that is to some of us, but regardless of how one switches windows or applications using hotkeys, the Mac windowing system (as the article makes clear) is essentially document-centric - each window corresponds (with some exceptions) to a document, which is sort of why closing the last document window doesn't terminate the application - i.e. it doesn't make this assumption, since your next action might be to open a new document.
This can be a bit counter-intuitive to those of us more familiar with X11 or Windows, but I can see where Apple is coming from. It does at least make for a more compact menu than that huge thing we see in recent MSOffice versions, which has obvious advantages if you are using a laptop.
Slashdot Mirror
Has Slashdot come to the point where individuals are no longer capable of expressing their opinions without their comments becoming 'invisible?'
Yes, long ago. This is where the moderation system breaks down - it is just too easy to flag a post as Troll when all it means is "I disagree".
I'm not sure who is stupider, the Italian prosecutor for bringing this case, or the guy who went to a country where there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest.
The latter.
It's about time Americans realised that the rest of the world is comprised of sovereign states not subject to their jurisdiction. I consider this a bit of a trivial case, but there are much more extreme manifestations of this attitude, such as rendition and detention without charge.
It's not an acceptable excuse to say "it's OK for us to do it because we're the Good Guys", because much of the world has good reason to doubt that.
Hmmm. Do you have any idea where Guantanamo is?
"Congratulations! By responding to this test email, you've received an IRS coupon for a FREE TAX AUDIT. Enjoy!"
...it is precisely the latter who are more likely to respond to further fake spam messages in the future, allowing the process to be repeated as often as necessary
I know you're being funny, but a stick approach might in this case be more efficacious than the carrot. The submission naively suggests that
...when experience shows us that greed will often override common-sense. An example uppermost in my mind is where people repeatedly sink money into Nigerian scams AFTER they were already aware that the thing was likely to be a con.
I often think this kind of thing is a good argument for chlorinating the gene pool, or at least retrospective abortion...
You're missing the point of his post.
Try reading beyond the first two sentences.
But whenever anything untoward occurs as a result of new releases of the Linux kernel, nVidia have (in my experience) always been proactive in providing a solution.
I have been using nVidia graphics cards on my frequently-updated Linux boxen for 10 years or so, and have yet to find a kernel issue they haven't addressed before I got around to upgrading.
but the smell of purification is undeniable.
:-|
I guess you must mean putrefaction...
And yes, I run NeoOffice but it doesn't quite handle Office files properly in all cases so I can't rely on it for critical client work.
That really doesn't make sense. If layout is so critical, just export it to PDF. NeoOffice/OpenOffice even give you a handy button to do that directly. If your clients can't deal with PDF, they might just as well crawl into their own graves and pull the soil over their heads.
being able to use the 64 bit processor instead of being stuck with only a 32 bit OS on a 64 bit pc...
Well, to be fair, by staying with 32-bit, a probable majority of users might appreciate not being forced to address more memory than they can afford. Sure, there are lots of applications where 64-bit is great, but browsing the net and sending emails just isn't that demanding.
but.. but.. Google has to be evil in some way!
:-)
Quite probably.
But the scary thing (for me) is that I was completely like a fish out of water for a few moments while I re-aligned my remaining neurons to an earlier decade when Google was not pre-eminent among browsers. Reminded myself that there are other search engines out there, and that MSN still doesn't figure among them...
but ironically to this story I'm getting a thick client on monday
Lucky you. All of my clients are thick. Every last one of the bastards...
In capitalist America, IP laws kill you!
The problem is that American capitalism has already had far too much success in persuading other countries that US law (particularly with regard to IP) applies to everyone else too.
It's often a precondition of so-called "free-trade" agreements that usually result in everyone except the US getting shafted. Hence here in Australia, our FTA has saddled us with IP agreements which are recognised by our own legislative committees approximately as "lamentably and inexcusably flawed". I'm too lazy to check that exact quote, but it's out there in public domain.
...just so that they will work in a program I never ever intend to use?
:-)
The only times I have ever used mc have been by accident. I have an occasional tendency to hit the "c" key instead of "v", so have found myself somewhere else when all I wanted to do was move a file.
My solution here is simply to delete mc.
Rape analogies are dangerous, but we could pursue this one:
(1) In most Western cultures, women who dress provocatively have been considered in their respective judicial systems to have contributed to their rape.
(2) Despite repeated "common-sense" warnings for avoiding being scammed on the internet, people still get sucked in by obviously fraudulent behaviour.
I'm not passing judgement on either, but the comparison is worth consideration...
There's some skill involved and you have to know details about vulnerabilities and how to exploit them.
Indeed. Many moons ago (back in the early 1980s, when "IBM PCs" were still new and beginning to be affordable) I was a security consultant to a certain large technology company not far west of London. Part of my brief was to write aggressive self-replicating routines in an attempt to disrupt crackers' activities. Thus I might claim credit for a few of the earliest viruses, but that's not really my point, which is that in those days work like this was done in assembly code, and as such was reasonably challenging. I was quite proud of it for that reason.
I haven't kept up with this particular technology, but I gather viruses such as these are a lot easier to craft now, particularly since users don't typically notice small (or even large) drains on resources any more.
Regardless of whether or not one admires botmasters' motives (and I don't) crafting botnets on a large scale has a certain "cool" factor, since there is quite a lot of work, skill and even artistry involved in setting them up.
and exists only as an excellent example of M$ screwing over their customers again.
What customers? Microsoft have only just released the Zune for sale in Canada, and it is as yet still unavailable elsewhere in the world. I'm not even remotely interested in buying one, but to me it appears as if MS just isn't serious about the Zune.
I would surmise that it could be more of an attempt to somehow confuse pontential iPod buyers rather than do anything worthwhile in their own right.
I find myself middle-clicking on links automatically ... like a robot ... and then close those extra tabs later without reading.
Why not just set Preferences -> Discussions -> Viewing -> "Display link domains" on and save some bandwidth?
Game Development Studio 2K Australia (creator of BioShock) provided $7,000 cash plus a trip to their studio in Canberra
Sorry, but can't resist:
"... and second prize was TWO trips to Canberra."
*ducks*
I do have 20/20 vision (or I did before I started welding, so maybe not)
;-)
Quite possibly. I used to be a blacksmith, which (if you're good at it) involves quite a bit of fire-welding (forge-welding) as well as occasional TIG/MIG, and although the radiation involved is not as much in the spectrum of an arc (no appreciable UV), I am almost convinced it takes its toll after a few years. But I guess it could just be old age galloping up close behind me...
Speaking for myself (I do not have 20/20 vision, but with glasses I get by OK), I often have to struggle to read captchas, and I have got to the stage where I will sometimes only persist with that website if they have something I really want. At this point, where captchas are almost easier for machines to read than for us, they become self-defeating, and it is time to find a different means to filter out spammers.
I'm a technology trainer (mostly Adobe and Apple stuff), and I can tell you Windows ego centrism is one of the largest roadblocks to learning there is. Just because something doesn't work the way YOU are used to, doesn't mean YOUR way is better.
:-)
Get off your high horse.
I have been using Unix since the 1970s (along with many other operating systems you probably have never even heard of), I have used Linux since about 1995, and I have used Windows from time to time since Windows 3.0, if you can call that an operating system. I have also been using OS X for about 3 years.
I can cope, believe me. Perhaps you should go back and read my post again before pontificating about my trainability. Actually, the hell with that. We were all expected to hit the ground running with Fortran, ADA, Assembler and a plethora of languages that never stood the test of time, and guess what? We had to do it by Reading the Fine Manuals.
Muttermutter "technology trainer (mostly Adobe and Apple stuff)" young whippersnapper, muttermutter, get off my lawn...
...and I'd like to see an OS that was even more document oriented. Trends come and go but Windows, and Linux to some extent, lean toward promoting the application over the document.
Well, I know I mentioned X11 in my earlier post - note, I didn't say Linux (just a kernel yada yada) - but it seems to me that it wouldn't be an insurmountable task to put such a document oriented windowing system on top of X11. After all, the latter is really pretty much there to provide a useful rendering system. In fact, if I understand it correctly, it should be a relatively straightforward (if tedious) job with Gnome and GTK+.
Whether in fact it would be worth the trouble is another matter. Most of us can adapt to the differences in approach and manage to maintain a quorum of neurons...
I'm still yet to see a single mote of evidence that Microsoft bothers to astroturf Slashdot.
Nor do I, and I am certainly not going to audit every post to find out. I've got getter things to do.
But in this case it is hardly the point; the article referenced by the OP is actually reasonably balanced, and certainly doesn't qualify as a shill or an attempt to astroturf.
every Mac application is an MDI application, only the outer "application" window is always maximized and always transparent
I don't know how clear that is to some of us, but regardless of how one switches windows or applications using hotkeys, the Mac windowing system (as the article makes clear) is essentially document-centric - each window corresponds (with some exceptions) to a document, which is sort of why closing the last document window doesn't terminate the application - i.e. it doesn't make this assumption, since your next action might be to open a new document.
This can be a bit counter-intuitive to those of us more familiar with X11 or Windows, but I can see where Apple is coming from. It does at least make for a more compact menu than that huge thing we see in recent MSOffice versions, which has obvious advantages if you are using a laptop.
Well, maybe if you're an eskimo, -20 F is hot - just imagine them sweating away in their parkas...
But where I live it is quite cool at 35 deg. C (95 deg. F) at the moment. But 108 deg. F is common, and we might envy the eskimos...