Right on, my friend! I gotta say (and from here on out is a rant, so read at your own risk/benefit), get out there and do some good works that benefit humanity, and then work your ass off to tell me that every piece of software that everone writes should be FREE! Get shot at in a third world country for doing something like building a school or digging a well, and THEN, from the safety of mommy's basement, tell me that someone else's hard work should automatically be free because you don't believe in paying for it!
I considered writing this as an Anonymous Coward, but I'm too proud of the unpaid time I spent building a network for a local Housing Authority, and the time I spent volunteering building housing with Americorps and feeding people in soup kitchens to hide behind a philosophy of "everything should be free because I don't want to pay for it and rich guys made it and they have too much money!!!!"
There are so many people out there who don't even know how to help themselves... please, Slashdot folk, give where you're willing and able. If it means writing a free piece of software where you're able to, or filling a plate at a soup kitchen, or donating a freakin' ThinkGeek sweatshirt you've outgrown to a shelter... man, come on... the world is a big, big place. Do your part other than complaining. "Human Rights" clauses in EULAs don't do jack shit for Joe Jobless who can't feed his family.
And "Human Rights" clauses in EULAs don't do jack shit for the man standing in front of a tank for free speech (see Tienneman Square, which some of us are old enough to remember). Vote, and don't forget who and what you're voting for.
Not that 98% will listen and understand, but hey, okay, I'm gonna step off the soapbox now.
If you're gonna be virtually protesting, at least virtually protest something real by quickly and easily emailing your representatives on actual issues that affect real human lives.
I think you mean that as long as the asteroid doesn't contain vast amounts of oil that US business interests have their eye on, President Bush won't be interested!
Don't forget to add code that makes the characters get acne and greasy hair, gain inordinate amounts of weight, and eventually die from throttled arteries!
I was recently at a conference where several vendors promised that their anti-virus product "stopped attacks 100% of the time." I didn't bother pointing out that that wasn't exactly likely or sustainable in an operational environment.
Someone else at the conference mentioned a foreign vendor whose firewall was supposed to stop 100% of traffic -- well, it did. However, it blocked ALL network traffic to the machine it was installed on and was not reconfigurable. Hey, it did what it was advertised to do, right?
You apparently have no idea what the actual scope of the internet covers. Corporate and military communications, banking transactions, medical information tracking, etc, etc. Yes, we could live without the internet, but reverting to the "old fashioned" pen-and-paper snailmail transportation of information, even for short periods of time, could cost billions of dollars -- not to mention levels of annoyance it would cause in day-to-day life.
quoth the poster: I mean, to the average Joe, the advantages of FOSS are obvious.
Don't you mean "to the average Slashdot poster"? When I think of the average Joe, I think of my father, who believes that my computer must be turned on for him to send me e-mail from his computer. That, and that Prodigy is the greatest thing on the planet...
quoth the poster:
How well is the MITRE Corporation regarded in general? How well are the thought of by the government in particular? How influential will their word on things be?
You're kidding, right?
On the front page of MITRE's website:
MITRE is a not-for-profit national resource that provides systems engineering, research and development, and information technology support to the government. It operates federally funded research and development centers for the DOD, the FAA, and the IRS, with principal locations in Bedford, Massachusetts, and Northern Virginia.
Trust me, they're extremely highly regarded and their analysis carries quite a bit of weight.
I work for the DoD (and am lucky enough to work with MITRE folk as well), and we go for the open source solution whenever we can. Why? We're in security. We absolutely NEED to be able to hack our own code whenever necessary. We can't afford to be taken down by any sort of attack, whether it be a worm, virus, or directed attack -- and I'm not talking "afford" in the sense of a dollar amount. We also like to be able to do things like add signatures to our IDSs whenever we feel like it. We often notice and track new virus and worm activity before it "breaks." We can't wait for vendor updates.
I've sat through meetings with vendor reps where certain office members tore the reps some new orifices. I've heard from a *major AV/Firewall company name deleted* rep "Oh, you use open source FREEWARE! Well, if you want to go with something totally insecure that has absolutely no support and you don't know exactly what the code actually does..." The rep then sat there in stunned silence as the department head launched into a detailed tirade about how every member of the office not only knew what the open source we used did, most of us could re-write it if we needed to. The rep actually blushed and admitted that if we could do that, we didn't need their product.
Most of our offices do use Microsoft on most of the standard user desktops... but it's open source hacked-to-hell code that runs everything else around here! Well, aside from the gallons and gallons of coffee and Mountain Dew that runs the people..
When I was a kid, we had an Apple II. Went on vacation in the summer, turned off the AC for a week. Came back, dead computer. Reason, according to the Apple tech? "Heat."
So dad bought an Apple IIc. Same thing happened. Bought another Apple IIc. Same damn thing. They couldn't take the southern US summers -- the heat and humidity were too much for 'em!
Dad switched to PCs shortly after... the first PC he ever bough (a Compaq) still runs.
That's strange.. about 10 years ago my optometrist told me that blue-eyed blondes are somewhat more sensitive to pain, especially related to the eyes. He said he has more trouble fitting blue-eyed blondes for contacts (especially hard lenses), and that they tended to experience worse night vision and painfully poor tolerance for high light-levels, expecially with contacts in.
Then again, he could have just been trying to make me feel better when I wimped out on hard lenses (I could only open my eyes in darkened rooms when I had them in, even after two weeks of "getting used to them"). I'm fine with soft lenses, though!
I worked with Donovan Schulteis, the guy who wrote Be's briefing in the MS antitrust trial. As far as I know, all that happened was the brief was filed as evidence to be reviewed by the court.
*shrug* He's working with [url=www.beunited.org]BeUnited[/url] now.
It's not the actual decrease in oil production or shipping from Iraq... it's the perception of supply and demand that allows Big Oil to raise oil prices whenever there's a disturbance in any Middle Eastern country. Few consumers question this, since the perception of a disrupted supply makes Joe Sixpack believe the inflated price is understandable and even reasonable.
Ever since the oil crisis of the 1970s based on Middle Eastern problems, people believe all our oil supply comes from there. In reality, the US stockpiles barrels of oil that can be released at at any time. We also have deep wells in the US that are not currently in production mode. It's political lobbies from Big Oil that control and/or allow for a lot of the fluctuations in oil prices, not actual supply-and-demand economics.
Supply-and-demand economics really kinda went out the window during the 90s.
9mm Special Effects has all the creepy contact lenses you could ever want, even in prescription. I highly recommend the Black Sclera lenses. They sure scared the shit outta my neighbor when he saw them.;) They're a bit pricey, but the ones we've gotten are super-high quality. You can get cheaper versions (not all available in prescription though) at VisionDirect.
Then there's Teeth By Dnash, where you can get custom-fit and custom-color fangs and claws. These things are amazing, handcrafted, and again, super-high quality.
If you need makeup, don't get the cheap crap. Get Ben Nye theatrical makeup. It won't smear or melt the way the cheap stuff does.
Of course, this stuff is only for people who take Halloween very seriously, like me!
So I'm reading Slashdot, I click on this story, and I'm confronted with a ad.doubleclick.net advertisement for MICROSOFT.net STUDIO FREE TRIAL?!?? How does this happen, Slashdot?!? I fear the worst...
Forget about the obscenity factor.. how long is it going to be before little Johnny's mom in California realizes she can talk to little cousin Jimmy's mom in New York.. without paying a long distance phone bill?
No kidding. At LEAST become an "armchair activist" -- you can attempt to change the status quo from the comfort of your computer desk!
Working for Change lets you e-mail the appropriate elected officials for your area. It's easy -- they provide a pre-written, customizable e-mail that you sign. Click send, and it automatically goes to your appropriate representatives. It also attaches your appropriate information (name, address, etc) so they can determine that you're actually a constituant (which is very important to elected officials).
Usually, you'll get a snail-mail reply from the people you write to. It's kinda nice to get something in the mail besides bills, AND feel like you're helping a cause at the same time...
That said....
So when's a Slashdot reader gonna run for office?!? Unfortunately, I'm not quite old enough to run for President yet -- you have to be 35 and I'm about a decade short...
All P2P issues aside, it's fascinating to think about what this form of campaigning means to the American public. Ponder for a second the legions of disaffected Americans who sit at their computers daily, reading blog after blog. Wouldn't you like to read a blog written by, say, your elected official? Not some slick press-release from the public relations branch of said official's staff, but an actual blog -- real thoughts and opinions. Would you be more inclined to vote?
I hope to see more of this in the future. Most Americans don't vote because they feel so distanced from the political process, and from the politicians themselves. Most of us don't even really know the views of the people on the ballot (since we're all too smart and hip to buy into the media mudslinging and muckracking that campaigning has turned into.. right? RIGHT?)
If more officials did something as courageous as putting their thoughts and opinions out there in the ether like Ms. Grub, can you imagine how the political process might change? Geeks might vote! Intelligent people might get elected, not just ones who can afford a good PR department!
And wouldn't that make the world a better place?
At my company, I have seen the geeks school the trainers. Most of the "training" is veiled corporate product placement. I've also seen the geeks rip corporate reps a new one over flawed, buggy software they were trying to sell^H^H^H^H train us on. We rely heavily on open source in our office, and management pretty much lets us do what we want (we're pretty lucky that way), but they still see fit to schedule training programs from corporate vendors.
Who knows about those crazy management folk. *shrug*
Slashdot Mirror
Right on, my friend! I gotta say (and from here on out is a rant, so read at your own risk/benefit), get out there and do some good works that benefit humanity, and then work your ass off to tell me that every piece of software that everone writes should be FREE! Get shot at in a third world country for doing something like building a school or digging a well, and THEN, from the safety of mommy's basement, tell me that someone else's hard work should automatically be free because you don't believe in paying for it!
I considered writing this as an Anonymous Coward, but I'm too proud of the unpaid time I spent building a network for a local Housing Authority, and the time I spent volunteering building housing with Americorps and feeding people in soup kitchens to hide behind a philosophy of "everything should be free because I don't want to pay for it and rich guys made it and they have too much money!!!!"
There are so many people out there who don't even know how to help themselves... please, Slashdot folk, give where you're willing and able. If it means writing a free piece of software where you're able to, or filling a plate at a soup kitchen, or donating a freakin' ThinkGeek sweatshirt you've outgrown to a shelter... man, come on... the world is a big, big place. Do your part other than complaining. "Human Rights" clauses in EULAs don't do jack shit for Joe Jobless who can't feed his family.
And "Human Rights" clauses in EULAs don't do jack shit for the man standing in front of a tank for free speech (see Tienneman Square, which some of us are old enough to remember). Vote, and don't forget who and what you're voting for.
Not that 98% will listen and understand, but hey, okay, I'm gonna step off the soapbox now.
No kidding.
If you're gonna be virtually protesting, at least virtually protest something real by quickly and easily emailing your representatives on actual issues that affect real human lives.
I think you mean that as long as the asteroid doesn't contain vast amounts of oil that US business interests have their eye on, President Bush won't be interested!
Don't forget to add code that makes the characters get acne and greasy hair, gain inordinate amounts of weight, and eventually die from throttled arteries!
I was recently at a conference where several vendors promised that their anti-virus product "stopped attacks 100% of the time." I didn't bother pointing out that that wasn't exactly likely or sustainable in an operational environment.
Someone else at the conference mentioned a foreign vendor whose firewall was supposed to stop 100% of traffic -- well, it did. However, it blocked ALL network traffic to the machine it was installed on and was not reconfigurable. Hey, it did what it was advertised to do, right?
You apparently have no idea what the actual scope of the internet covers. Corporate and military communications, banking transactions, medical information tracking, etc, etc. Yes, we could live without the internet, but reverting to the "old fashioned" pen-and-paper snailmail transportation of information, even for short periods of time, could cost billions of dollars -- not to mention levels of annoyance it would cause in day-to-day life.
quoth the poster:
I mean, to the average Joe, the advantages of FOSS are obvious.
Don't you mean "to the average Slashdot poster"? When I think of the average Joe, I think of my father, who believes that my computer must be turned on for him to send me e-mail from his computer. That, and that Prodigy is the greatest thing on the planet...
Yeah, I know, I'm nitpicking...
quoth the poster: How well is the MITRE Corporation regarded in general? How well are the thought of by the government in particular? How influential will their word on things be? You're kidding, right?
On the front page of MITRE's website: MITRE is a not-for-profit national resource that provides systems engineering, research and development, and information technology support to the government. It operates federally funded research and development centers for the DOD, the FAA, and the IRS, with principal locations in Bedford, Massachusetts, and Northern Virginia.
Trust me, they're extremely highly regarded and their analysis carries quite a bit of weight.
I work for the DoD (and am lucky enough to work with MITRE folk as well), and we go for the open source solution whenever we can. Why? We're in security. We absolutely NEED to be able to hack our own code whenever necessary. We can't afford to be taken down by any sort of attack, whether it be a worm, virus, or directed attack -- and I'm not talking "afford" in the sense of a dollar amount. We also like to be able to do things like add signatures to our IDSs whenever we feel like it. We often notice and track new virus and worm activity before it "breaks." We can't wait for vendor updates.
I've sat through meetings with vendor reps where certain office members tore the reps some new orifices. I've heard from a *major AV/Firewall company name deleted* rep "Oh, you use open source FREEWARE! Well, if you want to go with something totally insecure that has absolutely no support and you don't know exactly what the code actually does..." The rep then sat there in stunned silence as the department head launched into a detailed tirade about how every member of the office not only knew what the open source we used did, most of us could re-write it if we needed to. The rep actually blushed and admitted that if we could do that, we didn't need their product.
Most of our offices do use Microsoft on most of the standard user desktops... but it's open source hacked-to-hell code that runs everything else around here! Well, aside from the gallons and gallons of coffee and Mountain Dew that runs the people..
Democracy.org lets you find all your local candidates, their voting records and positions on issues, their addresses and websites, etc.
From MoveOn.org ("working to bring ordinary people back into politics") -- download your very own "Regime Change Begins at Home... VOTE!" poster.
Dude, how the hell should I know what my dad did with his computers? I was like 8!
When I was a kid, we had an Apple II. Went on vacation in the summer, turned off the AC for a week. Came back, dead computer. Reason, according to the Apple tech? "Heat."
So dad bought an Apple IIc. Same thing happened. Bought another Apple IIc. Same damn thing. They couldn't take the southern US summers -- the heat and humidity were too much for 'em!
Dad switched to PCs shortly after... the first PC he ever bough (a Compaq) still runs.
That's strange.. about 10 years ago my optometrist told me that blue-eyed blondes are somewhat more sensitive to pain, especially related to the eyes. He said he has more trouble fitting blue-eyed blondes for contacts (especially hard lenses), and that they tended to experience worse night vision and painfully poor tolerance for high light-levels, expecially with contacts in.
Then again, he could have just been trying to make me feel better when I wimped out on hard lenses (I could only open my eyes in darkened rooms when I had them in, even after two weeks of "getting used to them"). I'm fine with soft lenses, though!
I worked with Donovan Schulteis, the guy who wrote Be's briefing in the MS antitrust trial. As far as I know, all that happened was the brief was filed as evidence to be reviewed by the court.
*shrug* He's working with [url=www.beunited.org]BeUnited[/url] now.
It's not the actual decrease in oil production or shipping from Iraq... it's the perception of supply and demand that allows Big Oil to raise oil prices whenever there's a disturbance in any Middle Eastern country. Few consumers question this, since the perception of a disrupted supply makes Joe Sixpack believe the inflated price is understandable and even reasonable.
Ever since the oil crisis of the 1970s based on Middle Eastern problems, people believe all our oil supply comes from there. In reality, the US stockpiles barrels of oil that can be released at at any time. We also have deep wells in the US that are not currently in production mode. It's political lobbies from Big Oil that control and/or allow for a lot of the fluctuations in oil prices, not actual supply-and-demand economics.
Supply-and-demand economics really kinda went out the window during the 90s.
They're soft contacts. No sizing involved, and minimal risk, especially if you're familiar with wearing contacts. :)
9mm Special Effects has all the creepy contact lenses you could ever want, even in prescription. I highly recommend the Black Sclera lenses. They sure scared the shit outta my neighbor when he saw them. ;) They're a bit pricey, but the ones we've gotten are super-high quality. You can get cheaper versions (not all available in prescription though) at VisionDirect.
Then there's Teeth By Dnash, where you can get custom-fit and custom-color fangs and claws. These things are amazing, handcrafted, and again, super-high quality.
If you need makeup, don't get the cheap crap. Get Ben Nye theatrical makeup. It won't smear or melt the way the cheap stuff does.
Of course, this stuff is only for people who take Halloween very seriously, like me!
So I'm reading Slashdot, I click on this story, and I'm confronted with a ad.doubleclick.net advertisement for MICROSOFT .net STUDIO FREE TRIAL?!?? How does this happen, Slashdot?!? I fear the worst...
Forget about the obscenity factor.. how long is it going to be before little Johnny's mom in California realizes she can talk to little cousin Jimmy's mom in New York.. without paying a long distance phone bill?
"THIS JUST IN... Microsoft's Xbox servers now running on Linux... and in other news, the seas boiled and the moon became as blood!"
CNN is running this story about an "American Idol"-like TV show to find a Presidential candidate. How's THAT for optimism?!?
No kidding. At LEAST become an "armchair activist" -- you can attempt to change the status quo from the comfort of your computer desk!
Working for Change lets you e-mail the appropriate elected officials for your area. It's easy -- they provide a pre-written, customizable e-mail that you sign. Click send, and it automatically goes to your appropriate representatives. It also attaches your appropriate information (name, address, etc) so they can determine that you're actually a constituant (which is very important to elected officials).
Usually, you'll get a snail-mail reply from the people you write to. It's kinda nice to get something in the mail besides bills, AND feel like you're helping a cause at the same time...
That said....
So when's a Slashdot reader gonna run for office?!? Unfortunately, I'm not quite old enough to run for President yet -- you have to be 35 and I'm about a decade short...
All P2P issues aside, it's fascinating to think about what this form of campaigning means to the American public. Ponder for a second the legions of disaffected Americans who sit at their computers daily, reading blog after blog. Wouldn't you like to read a blog written by, say, your elected official? Not some slick press-release from the public relations branch of said official's staff, but an actual blog -- real thoughts and opinions. Would you be more inclined to vote? I hope to see more of this in the future. Most Americans don't vote because they feel so distanced from the political process, and from the politicians themselves. Most of us don't even really know the views of the people on the ballot (since we're all too smart and hip to buy into the media mudslinging and muckracking that campaigning has turned into.. right? RIGHT?) If more officials did something as courageous as putting their thoughts and opinions out there in the ether like Ms. Grub, can you imagine how the political process might change? Geeks might vote! Intelligent people might get elected, not just ones who can afford a good PR department! And wouldn't that make the world a better place?
At my company, I have seen the geeks school the trainers. Most of the "training" is veiled corporate product placement. I've also seen the geeks rip corporate reps a new one over flawed, buggy software they were trying to sell^H^H^H^H train us on. We rely heavily on open source in our office, and management pretty much lets us do what we want (we're pretty lucky that way), but they still see fit to schedule training programs from corporate vendors.
Who knows about those crazy management folk. *shrug*