Well, they've also transitioned from their former (proprietary) system to said GPLed product. Considering the effort generally involved in switching from one system to another, especially on the scale they're running (statewide, ~250 libraries, ~8 million books) I'd say that 'staking their future' is a fairly accurate description.
I think that what you're missing is that these folks are posting what they believe to be an extremely clear demonstration of the proper equation as a suggestion of something to present to the Verizon CSRs in the hopes that it would make them understand.
Personally, I think they're still underestimating the stupidity of the Verizon reps.
When I looked into it, it seemed like the supported devices list was pretty short and in most cases, not fully implemented: some didn't support all file formats (ogg is my preferred format and it wasn't working on many) some had extremely short battery life when using Rockbox (I think that was the iPods) some seemed to not be available in the US, and in the iPod case, the currently available models weren't supported, I believe.
Kinda funny thing to say in the context of talking about Black & White (a released game) vs Spore (a game that is beginning to look like vaporware amidst its hype).
These people can live on welfare for all I care, if the requirement for them to make a living is to allow companies like Doubleclick et al to track my movements across the internet.
No, I don't think that's it either. We've had games producing communities since before there were computers. Chess, bridge, backgammon, poker, wargames (ok, I'm not sure offhand whether wargames predate computers, but I suspect so) and more, all have been the basis of communities. More recently, RPGs and even trading card games form communities IRL. And most decent online computer games have done the same in their own way.
The Apple keyboard is good, and it's not expensive. No, it's not as good as the old Apple Extended Keyboard II (best KB ever made, by any company)
I'll take my IBM buckling spring keyboard over the Extended Keyboard II any day. I just wish I had more of them stockpiled - I'm on my second (mainly because this one is PS/2 which is easier to adapt to USB than my old AT-plugged board. The thing is pretty close to bulleproof, but I'd just feel safer with a spare or two in the wings.
what do we lose when a talented young musician decides he doesn't want or need to meet the terms and conditions of the file sharing demographic? no grinding concert tours. no hustling tee-shirts at every gig.
I dunno, I guess about the same thing as what we lose when a talented young musician gives it up after being rejected by a few record companies because he doesn't fit their top-40 demographic mold (He isn't Britney Spears or NSync or whatever the current pop thing happens to be).
Even if they don't say it explicitly, it's just written between the lines of most posts. Just look at this thread: the idiocy that "money should NOT come from simple copies" (and that this would surely not harm culture) has already popped up. And what is that if not an assumption and hidden opinion/request that copyright be abolished??
You are reading into things. While I think that Slashdot's readership does include some very clever folks, I just don't think they are nearly so subtle as you give them credit. Generally if there's a strong opinion and it's shared by even a few Slashdotters, you'll see it spelled out clearly, over and over again like a Soviet Russia or insensitive clod joke.
Now, since we haven't seen examples of this anti-copyright sentiment you describe, I'd say you're imagining it.
That is hilarious! Similarly, I was once contracted by a guy who wanted me fix up his computer because he was sure that those illegal operation notices were his computer reporting his viewing of web porn to the cops. I believe I installed a popup blocker to prevent the 30-40 maximized IE windows he seemed to end up with after 5 minutes of surfing.
The fact is that the "balance" that you strive for in your life is only possible because you live in a society that is wealthy enough to allow you to work a relatively small number of hours and still provide comfortably for your family.
My experience visiting relatives in a third world country (Phillipines - I'm first-gen US-born) as well as time spent travelling in other countries says differently. From what I've seen, people there generally take more leisure time than folks here do. I would be interested to hear the experiences of other americans who've had extended visits to other countries or folks from other countries who've had extended visits to the US in terms of amount of leisure time relative to amount of time worked.
...there would be fewer jobs and fewer technologies available for society (many of which, fyi, are labor/time/life saving products/services).
Labor and time saving products and services do not create jobs, nor allow more leisure time for the employees, they eliminate jobs and increase profits for employers. Examples include automated telephone menus in place of customer service reps/operators, automated checkout with pay machines in parking garages, bank ATMs, etc.
(A previous responder addressed the rest of the paragraph very nicely, I haven't much to add to their comments here)
It is really only in the last 100-200 years that large swathes of our society has even had enough time away from producing the bare necessities for their families (esp. food and shelter) to seriously consider "quality of life" issues.
Not sure where you got this idea but it's very different from my general impression, which basically is that the industrial revolution came along and brought us sweatshops and it's only through activism that the labor movement fought and got us a few steps closer to the previous labor/leisure ratios.
Meanwhile most of the world is still living like that and is rapidly trying to catch up...
Again, my impression is that most of the world has got a much better handle on taking leisure time than we do here in the US.
...Or you could get yourself a Thinkpad and install your choice of safer OSes - Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD (for belt & suspenders style safety) etc. are all good choices.
Your position is similar to one of my reasons for getting Microsoft software off of my system. This of course limits my gaming mostly to consoles and WoW, which I bought a used Mac to play.
"On the other hand, I can't think of a better alternative, other than basic audio jacks that are rotationally symetrical. But that design usually has issues with leaving contacts exposed when the wire is unplugged, something USB is pretty good at dealing with."
I can. Something with a plug whose shape indicates which direction it needs to be plugged and with a fairly standard pattern to the direction that the socket is mounted. Examples include Firewire, VGA, old fashioned serial/parallel, SCSI...even PS2 (and AT!) plugs usually have a flat side to indicate which is the 'top' - I can plug a PS2 keyboard into the back of most ATX cases on the first try without needing to see the socket (or even the plug, I can feel the top).
I think the thing that makes it annoying with USB is that there's no simple visual cue (e.g. shape of the plug) to tell you which way to plug it. There is that little plastic bit on one side, but for some reason I have a harder time remembering which side of the USB socket has the plastic bit than I do remembering for example which way the wider side of a VGA socket faces.
I have heard this (the GMO argument) or at least similar arguments before. This points to a problem with the term 'Genetically Modified'. Is there a better term? One that would make it clear when one is speaking of rat asshole corn, and not of things that occur in nature?
For next time: If you delete a message you didn't mean to and you realize it before hanging up, you can press "19" to review deleted messages. Sometimes I've even found that the deleted messages in the review seem to include messages I deleted in previous sessions.
Switcher: buys the wrong stuff, isn't quite cool enough to fit the RMU clique, has a Mac.
"Real Mac User" (RMU): knows just how to act cool enough - where to shop, which apps to run, is fond of thinking of self as an 'out of the box thinker' now that that's a trendy thing to be, thinks wearing a black turtleneck to Macworld is setting trends. Likes to pat self on back for buying into a trend earlier than some others.
You can always tell the RMUs:
true to who they are, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world.
The ones who are bold enough to insult strangers on Slashdot, but only as AC, because karma must never drift below excellent!
So, you run XP as admin with no firewalls or antivirus despite having been hit by a virus in the past, and you don't reboot after updates, which means basically that your updates are not applied to your machine...
What is it exactly that the 'clueless morons' do that you don't?
Slashdot Mirror
I'm taking this OT thread even further O, but I highly recommend Firefox+Adblock Plus for your ad-free viewing pleasure.
Well, they've also transitioned from their former (proprietary) system to said GPLed product. Considering the effort generally involved in switching from one system to another, especially on the scale they're running (statewide, ~250 libraries, ~8 million books) I'd say that 'staking their future' is a fairly accurate description.
I think that what you're missing is that these folks are posting what they believe to be an extremely clear demonstration of the proper equation as a suggestion of something to present to the Verizon CSRs in the hopes that it would make them understand.
Personally, I think they're still underestimating the stupidity of the Verizon reps.
What do you recommend for Rockbox devices?
When I looked into it, it seemed like the supported devices list was pretty short and in most cases, not fully implemented: some didn't support all file formats (ogg is my preferred format and it wasn't working on many) some had extremely short battery life when using Rockbox (I think that was the iPods) some seemed to not be available in the US, and in the iPod case, the currently available models weren't supported, I believe.
Kinda funny thing to say in the context of talking about Black & White (a released game) vs Spore (a game that is beginning to look like vaporware amidst its hype).
These people can live on welfare for all I care, if the requirement for them to make a living is to allow companies like Doubleclick et al to track my movements across the internet.
No, I don't think that's it either. We've had games producing communities since before there were computers. Chess, bridge, backgammon, poker, wargames (ok, I'm not sure offhand whether wargames predate computers, but I suspect so) and more, all have been the basis of communities. More recently, RPGs and even trading card games form communities IRL. And most decent online computer games have done the same in their own way.
I'll take my IBM buckling spring keyboard over the Extended Keyboard II any day. I just wish I had more of them stockpiled - I'm on my second (mainly because this one is PS/2 which is easier to adapt to USB than my old AT-plugged board. The thing is pretty close to bulleproof, but I'd just feel safer with a spare or two in the wings.
Because they're filhy communists who hate business and don't think pesticides belong in drinks.
I dunno, I guess about the same thing as what we lose when a talented young musician gives it up after being rejected by a few record companies because he doesn't fit their top-40 demographic mold (He isn't Britney Spears or NSync or whatever the current pop thing happens to be).
You are reading into things. While I think that Slashdot's readership does include some very clever folks, I just don't think they are nearly so subtle as you give them credit. Generally if there's a strong opinion and it's shared by even a few Slashdotters, you'll see it spelled out clearly, over and over again like a Soviet Russia or insensitive clod joke.
Now, since we haven't seen examples of this anti-copyright sentiment you describe, I'd say you're imagining it.
That is hilarious! Similarly, I was once contracted by a guy who wanted me fix up his computer because he was sure that those illegal operation notices were his computer reporting his viewing of web porn to the cops. I believe I installed a popup blocker to prevent the 30-40 maximized IE windows he seemed to end up with after 5 minutes of surfing.
My experience visiting relatives in a third world country (Phillipines - I'm first-gen US-born) as well as time spent travelling in other countries says differently. From what I've seen, people there generally take more leisure time than folks here do. I would be interested to hear the experiences of other americans who've had extended visits to other countries or folks from other countries who've had extended visits to the US in terms of amount of leisure time relative to amount of time worked.
Labor and time saving products and services do not create jobs, nor allow more leisure time for the employees, they eliminate jobs and increase profits for employers. Examples include automated telephone menus in place of customer service reps/operators, automated checkout with pay machines in parking garages, bank ATMs, etc.
(A previous responder addressed the rest of the paragraph very nicely, I haven't much to add to their comments here)
Not sure where you got this idea but it's very different from my general impression, which basically is that the industrial revolution came along and brought us sweatshops and it's only through activism that the labor movement fought and got us a few steps closer to the previous labor/leisure ratios.
Again, my impression is that most of the world has got a much better handle on taking leisure time than we do here in the US.
And your point is....?
...Or you could get yourself a Thinkpad and install your choice of safer OSes - Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD (for belt & suspenders style safety) etc. are all good choices.
Very informative post, thank you.
Just because you fall for it doesn't mean it's not a scam.
I think you may be following badly. Minter's product is on the XBox360.
Well said. I wish I had mod points for you.
Your position is similar to one of my reasons for getting Microsoft software off of my system. This of course limits my gaming mostly to consoles and WoW, which I bought a used Mac to play.
"On the other hand, I can't think of a better alternative, other than basic audio jacks that are rotationally symetrical. But that design usually has issues with leaving contacts exposed when the wire is unplugged, something USB is pretty good at dealing with."
I can. Something with a plug whose shape indicates which direction it needs to be plugged and with a fairly standard pattern to the direction that the socket is mounted. Examples include Firewire, VGA, old fashioned serial/parallel, SCSI...even PS2 (and AT!) plugs usually have a flat side to indicate which is the 'top' - I can plug a PS2 keyboard into the back of most ATX cases on the first try without needing to see the socket (or even the plug, I can feel the top).
I think the thing that makes it annoying with USB is that there's no simple visual cue (e.g. shape of the plug) to tell you which way to plug it. There is that little plastic bit on one side, but for some reason I have a harder time remembering which side of the USB socket has the plastic bit than I do remembering for example which way the wider side of a VGA socket faces.
I have heard this (the GMO argument) or at least similar arguments before. This points to a problem with the term 'Genetically Modified'. Is there a better term? One that would make it clear when one is speaking of rat asshole corn, and not of things that occur in nature?
For next time: If you delete a message you didn't mean to and you realize it before hanging up, you can press "19" to review deleted messages. Sometimes I've even found that the deleted messages in the review seem to include messages I deleted in previous sessions.
Switcher: buys the wrong stuff, isn't quite cool enough to fit the RMU clique, has a Mac.
"Real Mac User" (RMU): knows just how to act cool enough - where to shop, which apps to run, is fond of thinking of self as an 'out of the box thinker' now that that's a trendy thing to be, thinks wearing a black turtleneck to Macworld is setting trends. Likes to pat self on back for buying into a trend earlier than some others.
You can always tell the RMUs:
true to who they are, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world.
The ones who are bold enough to insult strangers on Slashdot, but only as AC, because karma must never drift below excellent!
So, you run XP as admin with no firewalls or antivirus despite having been hit by a virus in the past, and you don't reboot after updates, which means basically that your updates are not applied to your machine...
What is it exactly that the 'clueless morons' do that you don't?