And you've missed the point that so many other repliers have tried to explain to you. Avoiding being a "sheep" does not mean being aware of everything there is to be aware of. It simply means acting on the things that you are aware of.
If you learn about a "corporate sin" that you personally object to, but are unwilling to put up with a mild inconvenience (ie. looking for an alternative), so you just act like you aren't even aware of that "sin", then you are a "sheep". For those of us who actually try to do something with the knowledge we have, it's quite difficult to have any respect for you.
"Based on figures reported to Billboard Boxscore from Nov. 1, 2005, through mid-May, the Stones' Bigger Bang tour, produced by Michael Cohl, reported $147.3 million in grosses from 45 shows in U.S. arenas and international stadiums." (see here for more)
Artists as enormously successful as the ones you cited have ways to make boatloads of money even without selling any CDs. And, as others have pointed out, they get no piece of the results of record company lawsuits.
"I'm not quite sure why we are supposed to cast off our patriotism. Is it wrong to love ones country?"
Actually, GP didn't say anything about casting off patriotism, rather he was talking about casting off nationalism, and referred to patriotism (in quotes), which far too many people confuse with nationalism.
Patriotism is a feeling of admiration for a country and way of life, and a willingness to defend it. Conversely, nationalism is the feeling that your way of life, country, ethnic group, etc is superior to others.
Patriotism is a good thing. Nationalism is not. Unfortunately, people who oppose nationalism are all too frequently branded as unpatriotic, particularly in times when nationalism is running rampant, such as times of war. This is why non-Americans (such as myself) who oppose many of the actions of the current US administration are often called anti-American. The truth is I love America (which, as a Canadian patriot, I can do -- patriotism allows me love my country and your country, whereas nationalism would not allow that), and that's why I oppose what I perceive to be a corrupt administration that is actively destroying America.
It is good to love your country. It is not good to think you're superior because of your country.
A friend of mine recently lost all his iTMS-purchased songs due to a hard drive crash. One email was all it took to get credited for every purchase he had ever made.
Re:Not uninstalling is a huge pet peeve of mine
on
AOL 9.0 Called Badware
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
"Uninstalling is not a trivial problem."
Yes, it is.
"What happens if the program installs a shared library?"
You answered your own question quite nicely, actually.
"...although both of these require everyone to play by the rules."
And for those who don't, that would be their problem. If you play by the rules, your install and uninstall will go smoothly.
"And what about configuration files?... The uninstaller needs to know which of these I'm doing"
Ask. Lots of uninstallers do this.
Uninstalling is only a problem if you want it to be a problem. Sadly, lots of companies want it to be a problem to remove their software.
"Keyboard shortcuts like cut and paste, bold, italicize and underline perform as expected."
This is huge. One of my biggest pet peeves about web-based applications has always been that browsers are too inherently mouse-oriented. I'm a huge fan of the keyboard. The more work I can accomplish without lifting my hands from my keyboard, the happier I am.
"I don't see how editing text can be correctly implemented in a word processor, two people modifying the same document at the same moment can lead to one people overwriting some else's work."
Probably the same way version control systems handle two (or even more) people modifying the same source file at the same moment.
This is not a new concept. There is some coordination that needs to be done, obviously. If multiple people have write access to a document, they should be in communication with each other and know what the other is doing. It's a management problem, not a technical one.
"Solving the babelfish puzzle on my own was a landmark of my childhood."
Heh. No doubt. I was thinking of that very same puzzle as the GP was ranting about puzzles.
Sadly, I never did solve that one on my own. I got most of the way through it, but had to ask someone's advice to come up with the very last step.:(
Of course, I was also playing the game with a friend at his house, since I didn't have my own copy, so maybe I could've solved it if I'd been able to hack away at it for a while on my own.
It's not quite as annoying as the previous (and sadly still lurking around) trend of putting "e" in front of everything.
Hmmm, that gives me an idea. Maybe I could start a new company....... eSearch 2.0! Everyone will be all like, "whoa, forget Google, forget the boring old Search 2.0 companies, THIS guy's doing it electronically!"
"You really should read a post all the way through before responding to it."
I did. The post stated that "[t]here probably isn't any MH Java software for this platform, for the simple reason there isn't that much MH Java software of any kind," and went on to comment that Java is mostly used in the enterprise, and therefore it isn't a big deal if the laptop doesn't run Java.
My point is that its use in the enterprise is exactly why Java is important on these laptops.
"The big use of Java seems to be for enterpise software, that big companies write for their own use."
Exactly. So, what do these kids need on their $100 laptop if they want to, say, learn the skills necessary to break into careers in software development in big companies?
"Methinks the UK government doesn't know that what it wants is technologically infeasible...."
Methinks you didn't RTFA.
They are not asking that all keys be submitted. They are simply asking to give the police the power to force you to submit keys on request. In other words, after they've already confiscated your computer and discovered that there are encrypted files, they demand that you hand over the key, and if you don't, then they can throw you in jail.
I'm not saying I agree with it, just trying to clarify the misconception that everyone in this thread seems to be having about this.
Besides, WalMart is obligated to no one to even give a reason for closing a store. What difference would it make if they simply came out and said "we didn't want a store with a union?"
The difference is simply that it shows that they're assholes who are happy to screw over their employees. Which, in turn, might mean nothing to some (possibly most), but to others (like me) it means they won't get my money.
"...couldn't you spend all that time and effort actually learning how to play a real friggin' guitar?!"
Maybe he already knows how to play one.
This game has nothing to do with playing real music. It's a game. Lots of people who really do play real music (like myself: about 25 years playing guitar), really enjoy playing this game. Maybe this guy falls into that category as well.
"Many evolutionists operate under the faith that evolution occured and it occurred purely through natural processes. No divine or other intervention has been involved. Any attempt to suggest teaching people otherwise is met with stiff and dogmatic resistance."
Evolution is science. Science is the study of nature. Anything divine or otherwise supernatural is outside the scope of science. This is why resistance is encountered when attempts are made to teach people otherwise in a science class. Attempts to teach otherwise in some setting other than a science class are generally ignored by evolutionists.
This is the entire gist of the "Intelligent Design" debate. It's not science, so don't teach it in a science class.
Actually, the slogan was (and is) "L'eggo my Eggo", with the commercial always featuring two people fighting over a single Eggo.
But even if it had been as you suggested, that would be a situation where the company encourages the pluralization of their brand name. Lego, on the other hand, explicitly asks people not to do this.
You know you're bored at work when you're debating on Slashdot about the plural form of "Lego". Yikes.
Correlation most definitely does imply causation. It just doesn't prove causation. Correlation gives you a place to start looking for proof of causation.
Sorry, I should have been more clear. It was already legal to make personal copies of music you purchased, but this made it legal to make personal copies of music, whether you purchased it or not. In other words, it's legal to borrow a CD from a friend and copy it.
"Second, you can only make copies of music that you legally own. For example, you may make a copy of a CD you own and give it to a freind... but your friend cannot make a copy of their copy and give it away."
Are you sure about that? Perhaps they changed the rules recently, but the way it was originally written into the copyright act was that you could make a copy of any musical recording, regardless of whether or not you owned the original, but only if you made the recording for your own personal use. In other words, you cannot make a recording of a CD you bought and give it to a friend. But, the friend can borrow the CD from you and make a copy for themselves.
I haven't kept up to date on this lately, so perhaps it has changed. If you have some links regarding changes that make it the way you described it, I'd love to seem them.
Actually, what they did was even better than that. They imposed the levy and, at the same time, said it's perfectly legal to make copies of music for personal (ie. not for profit) use.
Of course, even better still would be to make it legal to copy for personal use and not impose the levy.
...SportPolitics wonders aloud about our use of the term game to describe sporting events. In the author's view, referring to sports as 'games' is inhibiting their adoption by mainstream society (who relates gaming to children's activities).
The C=64 was my second computer. I had already become quite adept at BASIC programming on my VIC 20 by the time I got my C=64 for XMas.
I believe I was about 8 when my uncle brought my VIC 20 up from Texas (they weren't yet available in Canada).
Of course, I already knew a thing or two about programming even before I got the VIC, as I had taken a BASIC programming course (some summer computer camp type thing) using PETs.
Ahh, the memories. I recall my 300 baud modem. I had to pick up the phone, manually dial it, wait for the other end to pick up and the screeching to begin, then flick a switch on the modem and hang up the phone. I used to download pirated games from BBSes overnight. I'd start the download, then go watch a movie or two. Easily a couple of hours to download, oh, about 180 KB at most.
Slashdot Mirror
And you've missed the point that so many other repliers have tried to explain to you. Avoiding being a "sheep" does not mean being aware of everything there is to be aware of. It simply means acting on the things that you are aware of.
If you learn about a "corporate sin" that you personally object to, but are unwilling to put up with a mild inconvenience (ie. looking for an alternative), so you just act like you aren't even aware of that "sin", then you are a "sheep". For those of us who actually try to do something with the knowledge we have, it's quite difficult to have any respect for you.
"Based on figures reported to Billboard Boxscore from Nov. 1, 2005, through mid-May, the Stones' Bigger Bang tour, produced by Michael Cohl, reported $147.3 million in grosses from 45 shows in U.S. arenas and international stadiums." (see here for more)
Artists as enormously successful as the ones you cited have ways to make boatloads of money even without selling any CDs. And, as others have pointed out, they get no piece of the results of record company lawsuits.
"I'm not quite sure why we are supposed to cast off our patriotism. Is it wrong to love ones country?"
Actually, GP didn't say anything about casting off patriotism, rather he was talking about casting off nationalism, and referred to patriotism (in quotes), which far too many people confuse with nationalism.
Patriotism is a feeling of admiration for a country and way of life, and a willingness to defend it. Conversely, nationalism is the feeling that your way of life, country, ethnic group, etc is superior to others.
Patriotism is a good thing. Nationalism is not. Unfortunately, people who oppose nationalism are all too frequently branded as unpatriotic, particularly in times when nationalism is running rampant, such as times of war. This is why non-Americans (such as myself) who oppose many of the actions of the current US administration are often called anti-American. The truth is I love America (which, as a Canadian patriot, I can do -- patriotism allows me love my country and your country, whereas nationalism would not allow that), and that's why I oppose what I perceive to be a corrupt administration that is actively destroying America.
It is good to love your country. It is not good to think you're superior because of your country.
You didn't try hard enough.
A friend of mine recently lost all his iTMS-purchased songs due to a hard drive crash. One email was all it took to get credited for every purchase he had ever made.
"Uninstalling is not a trivial problem."
Yes, it is.
"What happens if the program installs a shared library?"
You answered your own question quite nicely, actually.
"...although both of these require everyone to play by the rules."
And for those who don't, that would be their problem. If you play by the rules, your install and uninstall will go smoothly.
"And what about configuration files? ... The uninstaller needs to know which of these I'm doing"
Ask. Lots of uninstallers do this.
Uninstalling is only a problem if you want it to be a problem. Sadly, lots of companies want it to be a problem to remove their software.
"Keyboard shortcuts like cut and paste, bold, italicize and underline perform as expected."
This is huge. One of my biggest pet peeves about web-based applications has always been that browsers are too inherently mouse-oriented. I'm a huge fan of the keyboard. The more work I can accomplish without lifting my hands from my keyboard, the happier I am.
"I don't see how editing text can be correctly implemented in a word processor, two people modifying the same document at the same moment can lead to one people overwriting some else's work."
Probably the same way version control systems handle two (or even more) people modifying the same source file at the same moment.
This is not a new concept. There is some coordination that needs to be done, obviously. If multiple people have write access to a document, they should be in communication with each other and know what the other is doing. It's a management problem, not a technical one.
"Solving the babelfish puzzle on my own was a landmark of my childhood."
Heh. No doubt. I was thinking of that very same puzzle as the GP was ranting about puzzles.
Sadly, I never did solve that one on my own. I got most of the way through it, but had to ask someone's advice to come up with the very last step. :(
Of course, I was also playing the game with a friend at his house, since I didn't have my own copy, so maybe I could've solved it if I'd been able to hack away at it for a while on my own.
It's not quite as annoying as the previous (and sadly still lurking around) trend of putting "e" in front of everything.
Hmmm, that gives me an idea. Maybe I could start a new company....... eSearch 2.0! Everyone will be all like, "whoa, forget Google, forget the boring old Search 2.0 companies, THIS guy's doing it electronically!"
"I wonder what Stallman would do if, for a day, he just couldn't think of anything to complain about."
Complain about it.
"You really should read a post all the way through before responding to it."
I did. The post stated that "[t]here probably isn't any MH Java software for this platform, for the simple reason there isn't that much MH Java software of any kind," and went on to comment that Java is mostly used in the enterprise, and therefore it isn't a big deal if the laptop doesn't run Java.
My point is that its use in the enterprise is exactly why Java is important on these laptops.
"The big use of Java seems to be for enterpise software, that big companies write for their own use."
Exactly. So, what do these kids need on their $100 laptop if they want to, say, learn the skills necessary to break into careers in software development in big companies?
"Methinks the UK government doesn't know that what it wants is technologically infeasible...."
Methinks you didn't RTFA.
They are not asking that all keys be submitted. They are simply asking to give the police the power to force you to submit keys on request. In other words, after they've already confiscated your computer and discovered that there are encrypted files, they demand that you hand over the key, and if you don't, then they can throw you in jail.
I'm not saying I agree with it, just trying to clarify the misconception that everyone in this thread seems to be having about this.
Besides, WalMart is obligated to no one to even give a reason for closing a store. What difference would it make if they simply came out and said "we didn't want a store with a union?"
The difference is simply that it shows that they're assholes who are happy to screw over their employees. Which, in turn, might mean nothing to some (possibly most), but to others (like me) it means they won't get my money.
"...couldn't you spend all that time and effort actually learning how to play a real friggin' guitar?!"
Maybe he already knows how to play one.
This game has nothing to do with playing real music. It's a game. Lots of people who really do play real music (like myself: about 25 years playing guitar), really enjoy playing this game. Maybe this guy falls into that category as well.
"Many evolutionists operate under the faith that evolution occured and it occurred purely through natural processes. No divine or other intervention has been involved. Any attempt to suggest teaching people otherwise is met with stiff and dogmatic resistance."
Evolution is science. Science is the study of nature. Anything divine or otherwise supernatural is outside the scope of science. This is why resistance is encountered when attempts are made to teach people otherwise in a science class. Attempts to teach otherwise in some setting other than a science class are generally ignored by evolutionists.
This is the entire gist of the "Intelligent Design" debate. It's not science, so don't teach it in a science class.
Actually, the slogan was (and is) "L'eggo my Eggo", with the commercial always featuring two people fighting over a single Eggo.
But even if it had been as you suggested, that would be a situation where the company encourages the pluralization of their brand name. Lego, on the other hand, explicitly asks people not to do this.
You know you're bored at work when you're debating on Slashdot about the plural form of "Lego". Yikes.
Oh gawd. You think the RIAA/MPAA are bad? Just wait until people can "pirate" real objects.
Correlation most definitely does imply causation. It just doesn't prove causation. Correlation gives you a place to start looking for proof of causation.
Sorry, I should have been more clear. It was already legal to make personal copies of music you purchased, but this made it legal to make personal copies of music, whether you purchased it or not. In other words, it's legal to borrow a CD from a friend and copy it.
Are you sure about that? Perhaps they changed the rules recently, but the way it was originally written into the copyright act was that you could make a copy of any musical recording, regardless of whether or not you owned the original, but only if you made the recording for your own personal use. In other words, you cannot make a recording of a CD you bought and give it to a friend. But, the friend can borrow the CD from you and make a copy for themselves.
I haven't kept up to date on this lately, so perhaps it has changed. If you have some links regarding changes that make it the way you described it, I'd love to seem them.
Of course, even better still would be to make it legal to copy for personal use and not impose the levy.
Show me the one where Armstrong gets his freakin' line right.
...SportPolitics wonders aloud about our use of the term game to describe sporting events. In the author's view, referring to sports as 'games' is inhibiting their adoption by mainstream society (who relates gaming to children's activities).
The C=64 was my second computer. I had already become quite adept at BASIC programming on my VIC 20 by the time I got my C=64 for XMas.
I believe I was about 8 when my uncle brought my VIC 20 up from Texas (they weren't yet available in Canada).
Of course, I already knew a thing or two about programming even before I got the VIC, as I had taken a BASIC programming course (some summer computer camp type thing) using PETs.
Ahh, the memories. I recall my 300 baud modem. I had to pick up the phone, manually dial it, wait for the other end to pick up and the screeching to begin, then flick a switch on the modem and hang up the phone. I used to download pirated games from BBSes overnight. I'd start the download, then go watch a movie or two. Easily a couple of hours to download, oh, about 180 KB at most.