What strikes me as a bit sick (or at least sad) is that anyone might feel this project is a good use of their time. I can think of no reason why a skype user need be legitimately stalked in this way except for purposes of law enforcement, and those authorities already have resources at their disposal.
It's like listening to idiots discuss which kind of acupuncture is real.
I know this is off-topic, but I never thought any kind of acupuncture was real until a few years ago, when I had it done (by way of a freebie extra offered by my physiotherapist) for a shoulder injury.
Regardless of my total non-belief in the effectiveness of the procedure, the effects were immediate, long-lasting and undeniable. I don't have any rigorous explanation as to why poking holes in someone should make them feel better, but whatever works...
But since this issue keeps reappearing on geekish forums, it's probably worth repeating (again, sigh) that if you have anything you really don't want generally known, then don't put it on a phone or any other device that can be stolen or easily scraped for data. Better still, don't store it on any electronic device at all.
and (in my experience) most will only do that if you give them a good reason, or they have no viable alternative.
Hmmm.
I don't mean to disparage your experience, but I should mention that when you have a lot of it, you will find a few asswipes amongst your list of employers.
I have had some bosses with whom I might almost have worked for free, while on the other hand I have had recent experience of another boss who has been personally responsible for a 250% turnover of staff (including myself) in the 11 months I was at that workplace. I consider myself fortunate (and nearly unique) to have survived my notice period without some pretext having been found (or manufactured) to precipitate my being sacked.
If you are in a position to leave without being escorted hastily out of the door within a few minutes of handing in your notice, you might consider yourself to be in luck.
I can understand the rationale behind such a practice in a toxic workplace where such suspicious attitudes are rife, but it doesn't feel good being on the receiving end of it.
This happened to me once, back in 1990. I thought I was doing the right thing by giving plenty of notice so that a replacement could be found and given an orderly handover, but my desk was immediately cleared by the HR manager, who then personally escorted me out and drove me to my house to pick up the terminals and modem hardware I used to drive the systems outside hours from home. It felt like I was being sacked.
In this case, Apple has made neither innovation nor invention. It has simply taken over CUPS and left everyone else hanging out to dry. Very much like the old Microsoft model of "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish", but without the "Extend" bit.
Yeah, not living in the real world lets you ignore certain mission critical things.
(Score 0, Informative)
Oh dear.
I don't use a printer very often any more, but I still need one occasionally. I recently got my fingers burnt by having made the (admittedly stupid) assumption that a(n otherwise excellent) consumer-grade Fuji Xerox CP105B printer with a CUPS driver for Macs would work under Linux.
At this point, I have had no success in getting the thing to work under Linux with the ppd files generated for Macs, so I now have a printer that only my wife can use.
I was uneasy when I first noticed that Apple had taken ownership of CUPS, and in this case my experience is that that disquiet is justified. Unless I find a workaround (or if some helpful reader can offer a useful suggestion), CUPS no longer has any right to call itself a "Common Unix Printing System".
On small screens maximizing windows and reducing the space for menus and toolbars is good design...
In which case that panel across the top of the screen (which can in some cases be such a PITA to remove) is an incredibly dumbass idea. Sure, Mac users will be used to it, but I really hate that wasted space.
Seems to me that some developers have had their heads up their asses for so long, they've started to enjoy the view in there. I can only agree about the self-sabotage, but let's keep Linux out of it. We can't blame that nice Mr. Torvalds for the misguided efforts of a few 11-year-old adolescents on the Gnome team.
Don't you think that Gnome 3 can piss people off all by itself...
Sadly, in my case, yes. I had been a fan of Gnome since the late '90s, and have played with just about every UI available for X11. Gnome's most full-featured "competitor" (as far as the term has any meaning in the OSS world) KDE was for many years kluttered and ugly.
I really did try to learn to like Gnome 3, but I found so many obstacles in the way of getting any work done, I had to put it to one side in favour of a hybrid of KDE and compiz-fusion, which I am quite happy with, now that I have disabled all those mysterious "services" with meaningless and peculiar names.
I'll keep my eye on Gnome, but I suspect the developers are going to have to grow up a bit before I go back.
Another difference is that for the most part, unless both author and reader are very fortunate, proofreaders rarely exist any more, unless they are willing to do the job for no pay. Few publishers are willing to pay for proofreaders or editors, which is at least partly why so much poor prose makes it into print.
(Incidentally, I quite enjoy proofreading, and I consider myself to be good at it. But my only recompense is the occasional bottle of single-malt Scotch...)
Autonomous vehicles don't have to be perfect to win me over, just better than the average driver, which is a terribly low bar to cross.
You have a point, but I imagine it will be some time before a "largely workable" system is permitted to operate a vehicle on public roads. Under the current system, being in possession of a current driver's licence means that if you fuck up, you can get your ass kicked. But imagine any police department going up against Google... What could possibly go wrong?
True. And (by way of a nitpick) this this brings me back to a remark in the OP where it is claimed that "the computer is humanity's most powerful tool".
I dispute this. Humanity's most powerful and important tool is the same as it has been for thousands of years: the hammer.
My last contact with Mandriva was when it was still Mandrake, back in the very early noughties. It was OK, but not much more, and definitely (IMO) didn't have the polish of (say) Slackware, or even RedHat.
Sure, you undoubtedly will save money. But your parent poster neglects to mention that Stradivari in particular most probably used wood from the same two trees (maple for the back and ribs, spruce for the belly of his instruments) for the greater part of his career, so one would expect a degree of uniformity in his materials. His workmanship, and certainly his aesthetic most definitely did vary as he got older.
Regardless of whether or not an item is, or can be authenticated as some form of antique, terms of service that require the destruction of that item in the event of any kind of dispute are clearly unconscionable. The only honourable course of action in this kind of case is for the item to be returned to the seller and the buyer's money refunded.
OK, we've had a few posts here offering unsubstantiated implications that RMS is guilty of anti-semitism. I just did a bit of googling, and all I found was a few articles regarding his position regarding Palestine. Conflating an opinion on judaism with one on the nation of Israel doesn't work. Most of the world recognises that Israel is behaving badly towards Palestine, and for RMS to say so doesn't mean he's anti-semitic.
in the old days music was not compressed and had more feeling.
A minor nitpick here:
In order to prevent the needle on your pickup arm skipping across the vinyl, phono recordings were (are) made with an RIAA compression algorithm. Which is why analogue amplifiers have dedicated phono pre-amp circuits.
Well, the movies I watched when I was in my 20s were almost certainly better than the ones I see now, mainly because back in those days I was always stoned off my head.:)
So what would you do if you got your eReader, but didn't have a computer to establish a wired connection to your router?
Same as for any other WiFi device: enter (or scan for) my network SSID, then enter my WPA2 password. If typing in a reasonably strong WPA2 password is beyond the user's capabilities, then he doesn't really have any business being on the internet at all. Acting responsibly has nothing to do with being computer-savvy.
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What strikes me as a bit sick (or at least sad) is that anyone might feel this project is a good use of their time. I can think of no reason why a skype user need be legitimately stalked in this way except for purposes of law enforcement, and those authorities already have resources at their disposal.
My dog goes pan-handling on his own with a sign that says "owner won't let me spend my own money on cookies".
So what's the current exchange rate for dog money?
It's like listening to idiots discuss which kind of acupuncture is real.
I know this is off-topic, but I never thought any kind of acupuncture was real until a few years ago, when I had it done (by way of a freebie extra offered by my physiotherapist) for a shoulder injury.
Regardless of my total non-belief in the effectiveness of the procedure, the effects were immediate, long-lasting and undeniable. I don't have any rigorous explanation as to why poking holes in someone should make them feel better, but whatever works...
Possibly true.
But since this issue keeps reappearing on geekish forums, it's probably worth repeating (again, sigh) that if you have anything you really don't want generally known, then don't put it on a phone or any other device that can be stolen or easily scraped for data. Better still, don't store it on any electronic device at all.
Oh, I was paid out for my notice period, but the treatment was still unnecessarily rough, since I had done nothing to merit that distrust.
and (in my experience) most will only do that if you give them a good reason, or they have no viable alternative.
Hmmm.
I don't mean to disparage your experience, but I should mention that when you have a lot of it, you will find a few asswipes amongst your list of employers.
I have had some bosses with whom I might almost have worked for free, while on the other hand I have had recent experience of another boss who has been personally responsible for a 250% turnover of staff (including myself) in the 11 months I was at that workplace. I consider myself fortunate (and nearly unique) to have survived my notice period without some pretext having been found (or manufactured) to precipitate my being sacked.
Sometimes it seems companies are happy to find a scapegoat, but do nothing about the system that leads to it being that way.
I've seen this very recently. Seems some managers don't really want to fix problems, they just want them to go away.
If you are in a position to leave without being escorted hastily out of the door within a few minutes of handing in your notice, you might consider yourself to be in luck.
I can understand the rationale behind such a practice in a toxic workplace where such suspicious attitudes are rife, but it doesn't feel good being on the receiving end of it.
This happened to me once, back in 1990. I thought I was doing the right thing by giving plenty of notice so that a replacement could be found and given an orderly handover, but my desk was immediately cleared by the HR manager, who then personally escorted me out and drove me to my house to pick up the terminals and modem hardware I used to drive the systems outside hours from home. It felt like I was being sacked.
In this case, Apple has made neither innovation nor invention. It has simply taken over CUPS and left everyone else hanging out to dry. Very much like the old Microsoft model of "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish", but without the "Extend" bit.
Yeah, not living in the real world lets you ignore certain mission critical things.
(Score 0, Informative)
Oh dear.
I don't use a printer very often any more, but I still need one occasionally. I recently got my fingers burnt by having made the (admittedly stupid) assumption that a(n otherwise excellent) consumer-grade Fuji Xerox CP105B printer with a CUPS driver for Macs would work under Linux.
At this point, I have had no success in getting the thing to work under Linux with the ppd files generated for Macs, so I now have a printer that only my wife can use.
I was uneasy when I first noticed that Apple had taken ownership of CUPS, and in this case my experience is that that disquiet is justified. Unless I find a workaround (or if some helpful reader can offer a useful suggestion), CUPS no longer has any right to call itself a "Common Unix Printing System".
On small screens maximizing windows and reducing the space for menus and toolbars is good design...
In which case that panel across the top of the screen (which can in some cases be such a PITA to remove) is an incredibly dumbass idea. Sure, Mac users will be used to it, but I really hate that wasted space.
Seems to me that some developers have had their heads up their asses for so long, they've started to enjoy the view in there. I can only agree about the self-sabotage, but let's keep Linux out of it. We can't blame that nice Mr. Torvalds for the misguided efforts of a few 11-year-old adolescents on the Gnome team.
Don't you think that Gnome 3 can piss people off all by itself...
Sadly, in my case, yes. I had been a fan of Gnome since the late '90s, and have played with just about every UI available for X11. Gnome's most full-featured "competitor" (as far as the term has any meaning in the OSS world) KDE was for many years kluttered and ugly.
I really did try to learn to like Gnome 3, but I found so many obstacles in the way of getting any work done, I had to put it to one side in favour of a hybrid of KDE and compiz-fusion, which I am quite happy with, now that I have disabled all those mysterious "services" with meaningless and peculiar names.
I'll keep my eye on Gnome, but I suspect the developers are going to have to grow up a bit before I go back.
Even after that we had to look up the email rfc to confirm its just not a rouge email server somewhere.
How can you tell what colour your email server is from an RFC? In any case, a rouge server should stand out among all the beige boxes...
Similar, but there's a big difference here...
Another difference is that for the most part, unless both author and reader are very fortunate, proofreaders rarely exist any more, unless they are willing to do the job for no pay. Few publishers are willing to pay for proofreaders or editors, which is at least partly why so much poor prose makes it into print.
(Incidentally, I quite enjoy proofreading, and I consider myself to be good at it. But my only recompense is the occasional bottle of single-malt Scotch...)
Autonomous vehicles don't have to be perfect to win me over, just better than the average driver, which is a terribly low bar to cross.
You have a point, but I imagine it will be some time before a "largely workable" system is permitted to operate a vehicle on public roads. Under the current system, being in possession of a current driver's licence means that if you fuck up, you can get your ass kicked. But imagine any police department going up against Google... What could possibly go wrong?
True. And (by way of a nitpick) this this brings me back to a remark in the OP where it is claimed that "the computer is humanity's most powerful tool".
I dispute this. Humanity's most powerful and important tool is the same as it has been for thousands of years: the hammer.
My last contact with Mandriva was when it was still Mandrake, back in the very early noughties. It was OK, but not much more, and definitely (IMO) didn't have the polish of (say) Slackware, or even RedHat.
Hmmm.
Sure, you undoubtedly will save money. But your parent poster neglects to mention that Stradivari in particular most probably used wood from the same two trees (maple for the back and ribs, spruce for the belly of his instruments) for the greater part of his career, so one would expect a degree of uniformity in his materials. His workmanship, and certainly his aesthetic most definitely did vary as he got older.
Regardless of whether or not an item is, or can be authenticated as some form of antique, terms of service that require the destruction of that item in the event of any kind of dispute are clearly unconscionable. The only honourable course of action in this kind of case is for the item to be returned to the seller and the buyer's money refunded.
OK, we've had a few posts here offering unsubstantiated implications that RMS is guilty of anti-semitism. I just did a bit of googling, and all I found was a few articles regarding his position regarding Palestine. Conflating an opinion on judaism with one on the nation of Israel doesn't work. Most of the world recognises that Israel is behaving badly towards Palestine, and for RMS to say so doesn't mean he's anti-semitic.
I am not ware of any coming of age ceremony in modern day cultures.
You've never heard of a Bar Mitzvah? I'm not even Jewish, but that's just one that should come to mind for even a halfway educated person.
in the old days music was not compressed and had more feeling.
A minor nitpick here:
In order to prevent the needle on your pickup arm skipping across the vinyl, phono recordings were (are) made with an RIAA compression algorithm. Which is why analogue amplifiers have dedicated phono pre-amp circuits.
Well, the movies I watched when I was in my 20s were almost certainly better than the ones I see now, mainly because back in those days I was always stoned off my head. :)
So what would you do if you got your eReader, but didn't have a computer to establish a wired connection to your router?
Same as for any other WiFi device: enter (or scan for) my network SSID, then enter my WPA2 password. If typing in a reasonably strong WPA2 password is beyond the user's capabilities, then he doesn't really have any business being on the internet at all. Acting responsibly has nothing to do with being computer-savvy.