Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it pretty much legally impossible to "sign away" your right to sue someone?
I'm sure the RIAA knows this. Hardly anyone else does, though.
Here's what I expect to see on the webpage in a few months:
"Currently Nutch is in the alpha stage- it doesn't index any web pages, doesn't return any results, and has no user interface. Programmer's needed!"
Google has WON the search engine war, probably forever. Find some other mountain to climb, guys.
The very first line of the article:
"Of the estimated 8 million computer users who seek technical support from software manufacturers every year, about a third never get the help they need, according to a survey in the latest issue of Consumer Reports magazine."
Well, the question is, what kind of help do they think they *need* anyway? Do they "need" the Dell support guy making $7/hour to explain to them, in detail, how to make a Powerpoint presentation and use and MP3 of "Wind Beneath My Wings" as the soundtrack? Or do they "need" their local ISP's tech support to troubleshoot their broken printer, because they can't print a web page?
You see, there is bad tech support, no doubt. But the real problem is that the VAST majority of users don't know what their problem is. They call the wrong people, ask the wrong questions, and flat-out lie.
Ease of use is EVERYTHING. Until Linux is as simple to use as Windows, it's not going to be a big player on the desktop.
Yeah, that's been said before about a million times, but apparently no one listens.
This isn't a big deal
on
In-Flight Reboot?
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· Score: 5, Interesting
The software required to run the Raptor is insanely complicated. The plane itself was ambitious, but the contorl systems are the real innovation.
Give these guys a break. The fact that the thing flies at all is amazing. The fact that it does everything it was designed to do is unbelievable.
So there are a few bugs to work out. That's how it goes. We're not talking about "normal" programming problems here- this is Real Life stuff.
Hewlett-Packard has announced that they will be writing children's novels in attempt to compete with JK Rowling-
"With our experience in building and designing excellent printers, as well as photo-grade papers and color inks, we see no reason we shouldn't be able to write great books."
Currently HP is working on it's first book, "Harry Plotter and the Unholy Army of Third-party Ink-cartridge Refurbishers". USB cable not included.
Make sure that you are a pretentious asshole before you make the trip to Burning Man, though. It's a requirement to get in.
Though I've heard that if you can get a friend to lick his/her henna tattoo and press it to your forearm, that you'll be able to fool the guy at the door 9 times out of ten.
Alll the examples you give really have nothing to do with the kinds of things you want to do with a SERVER.
That's the rub with every distro of Linux I've ever used. The desktop stuff is simple (to a point), but all the server stuff, which is what Linux is really about, isn't simple. At least, not when you want to start configuring it to fit your needs.
The best example I can think of is something I just went through myself. I wanted to replace our current sendmail-based Redhat e-mail server with something that would do webmail, automatic spam-filtering (user-configurable), virus-scanning, and mailbox quotas.
In Windows land, for a big-but-not-terrible chunk of change, I can buy this pre-packaged, in one cardboard box. Just install and go. With Linux, it took me weeks of screwing around and Google searches to figure out exactly how to configure Postfix, MySQL, SquirrelMail, Courier-IMAP, SpamAssassin, Clam Anti-Virus,,Amavisd-new, and maildrop.
I enjoyed it, cause I like doing that kind of thing. But every once in a while I would think "Is this a fucking joke? How much time have I spent on this? And it still isn't working?"
With Windows, the only thing you ever regret is the amount of money you spent. Oh, and the fact that you don't have a bash shell;)
Wouldn't everyone be much happier if dial-up was just another $5 charge on your monthly bill from Qwest (or whoever)? And that the dial-up number was an 800 number that would work from essentially anywhere in the world?
There's really no reason for small dial-up ISPs anymore. Especially when the telcos can do it so much cheaper.
Except that I don't think it's the death of overpriced CDs that scares them so much as the death of the ENTIRE distribution and marketing infrastructure.
How do you control the market when worldwide distribution is automatic and cheap? You don't. THAT'S what they're really scared of. Once "every band is created equal", that's when the money really starts to dry up, as people start to develop their own tastes, and can satisfy them easily and cheaply.
So, more than a year later, the Mac crowd gets a port of a shitty game?
Yikes. Does anyone REALLY care about games on the Mac anymore? I would assume that anyone with a Mac has already accepted their fate, and bought a PS2 (or PC) to play games on.
If I ran Apple, I'd be paying off game companies left and right just to get stuff released at the same time as the PC versions. Gaming, I think, is what REALLY keeps Apple's market share from rising. In the home, at least.
Their licensing terms, according to the article, while agressive, are pretty much in-line with standard industry practice.
So...who cares? If these companies don't want to pay the licensing fees, or agree to the licensing terms, then fuck them. They can reverse-engineer the shit. Isn't this the whole POINT of licensing agreements? To make a bunch of money off of companies that for whatever reason, don't want to be bothered with figuring out their own solution to the problem?
Quiet, man! You're giving the RIAA new ideas for lawsuits!
But you're right. Both Winamp and Gnutella and WASTE are simply tools. That can be used for breaking laws, or not.
Should a tool that can be used for both evil and good be made illegal because of the "evil" parts? Who knows. That's where the lawyers come in. Well, first the lobbyists, then the congressman, THEN the lawyers.
The reason we DON'T have orbital industry is that, as far as anyone can tell, there just isn't any point to it yet. There's nothing to DO in zero gravity that can't be done cheaper and easier here on earth.
Mining asteroids is a good idea, but it's so far off, it's irrelevant.
There is NO reason any school's network should be getting killed by P2P traffic. An Allot (www.allot.com) NetEnforcer could throttle that shit down to the point that it wouldn't be a problem at all. Or block it entirely.
I seem to recall reading a few years ago, during the boom, that "non-compete" clauses COULD NOT prevent you from taking a job for fear of getting sued. That they were basically bullshit, in fact. A whole "right to work" thing.
They're only "your" packets until they leave your computer. Then they are their packets, since they are on their network.
So yeah, they can sniff packets all they want. You agreed to that when you paid for their service.
Now, using what they find in your packets against you in court, or really doing anything with them other than protecting their own network/contracts...that's different.
What's happening?
What's happening is, The Powers That Be have finally managed to convince the (stupid, sheep-like) public that giving up their privacy is the safest thing they can do.
It all begins here, folks. The slow erosion of all your privacy, and then all your rights in general. It might take 20 years, but these evil fucks unfortunately have a lot of patience.
And they have been for years. Great support, overpriced, dull products. And, worst of all, McNealy himself. The whiniest CEO of all-time.
I just don't see what Sun has to offer anyone these days.
At that speed, it would take you 50 years to build a highway from the Library of Congress to the Grand Canyon and fill it with enough encyclopedias to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
I assume that you also aren't purchasing anything from Wal-Mart, don't buy Nike shoes or products of any kind, and drive a solar-powered vehicle so the terrorists don't get any of your money for oil?
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it pretty much legally impossible to "sign away" your right to sue someone? I'm sure the RIAA knows this. Hardly anyone else does, though.
Here's what I expect to see on the webpage in a few months: "Currently Nutch is in the alpha stage- it doesn't index any web pages, doesn't return any results, and has no user interface. Programmer's needed!" Google has WON the search engine war, probably forever. Find some other mountain to climb, guys.
The very first line of the article: "Of the estimated 8 million computer users who seek technical support from software manufacturers every year, about a third never get the help they need, according to a survey in the latest issue of Consumer Reports magazine." Well, the question is, what kind of help do they think they *need* anyway? Do they "need" the Dell support guy making $7/hour to explain to them, in detail, how to make a Powerpoint presentation and use and MP3 of "Wind Beneath My Wings" as the soundtrack? Or do they "need" their local ISP's tech support to troubleshoot their broken printer, because they can't print a web page? You see, there is bad tech support, no doubt. But the real problem is that the VAST majority of users don't know what their problem is. They call the wrong people, ask the wrong questions, and flat-out lie.
SCO sucks my cock.
Bingo.
Ease of use is EVERYTHING. Until Linux is as simple to use as Windows, it's not going to be a big player on the desktop.
Yeah, that's been said before about a million times, but apparently no one listens.
The software required to run the Raptor is insanely complicated. The plane itself was ambitious, but the contorl systems are the real innovation. Give these guys a break. The fact that the thing flies at all is amazing. The fact that it does everything it was designed to do is unbelievable. So there are a few bugs to work out. That's how it goes. We're not talking about "normal" programming problems here- this is Real Life stuff.
Hewlett-Packard has announced that they will be writing children's novels in attempt to compete with JK Rowling- "With our experience in building and designing excellent printers, as well as photo-grade papers and color inks, we see no reason we shouldn't be able to write great books." Currently HP is working on it's first book, "Harry Plotter and the Unholy Army of Third-party Ink-cartridge Refurbishers". USB cable not included.
Make sure that you are a pretentious asshole before you make the trip to Burning Man, though. It's a requirement to get in.
Though I've heard that if you can get a friend to lick his/her henna tattoo and press it to your forearm, that you'll be able to fool the guy at the door 9 times out of ten.
Alll the examples you give really have nothing to do with the kinds of things you want to do with a SERVER.
,Amavisd-new, and maildrop.
;)
That's the rub with every distro of Linux I've ever used. The desktop stuff is simple (to a point), but all the server stuff, which is what Linux is really about, isn't simple. At least, not when you want to start configuring it to fit your needs.
The best example I can think of is something I just went through myself. I wanted to replace our current sendmail-based Redhat e-mail server with something that would do webmail, automatic spam-filtering (user-configurable), virus-scanning, and mailbox quotas.
In Windows land, for a big-but-not-terrible chunk of change, I can buy this pre-packaged, in one cardboard box. Just install and go. With Linux, it took me weeks of screwing around and Google searches to figure out exactly how to configure Postfix, MySQL, SquirrelMail, Courier-IMAP, SpamAssassin, Clam Anti-Virus,
I enjoyed it, cause I like doing that kind of thing. But every once in a while I would think "Is this a fucking joke? How much time have I spent on this? And it still isn't working?"
With Windows, the only thing you ever regret is the amount of money you spent. Oh, and the fact that you don't have a bash shell
Wouldn't everyone be much happier if dial-up was just another $5 charge on your monthly bill from Qwest (or whoever)? And that the dial-up number was an 800 number that would work from essentially anywhere in the world? There's really no reason for small dial-up ISPs anymore. Especially when the telcos can do it so much cheaper.
Because there is nothing interesting to say, at least when it comes to products where SPEED is the only important factor.
How many ways are there to write "ATIs card is faster", or "The Pentium 4 3.0GHz processor is faster than the Pentium 4 2.8GHz processor"?
I agree about the page after page of benchmarks, though. Who cares? Tell me which one wins.
Ardour is to Audacity as Quark Xpress is to Notepad.
That's an exaggeration, but only a small one. If you like Cool Edit, and it does what you need, then Ardour is gonna be overkill.
I agree with almost everything you said.
Except that I don't think it's the death of overpriced CDs that scares them so much as the death of the ENTIRE distribution and marketing infrastructure.
How do you control the market when worldwide distribution is automatic and cheap? You don't. THAT'S what they're really scared of. Once "every band is created equal", that's when the money really starts to dry up, as people start to develop their own tastes, and can satisfy them easily and cheaply.
So, more than a year later, the Mac crowd gets a port of a shitty game? Yikes. Does anyone REALLY care about games on the Mac anymore? I would assume that anyone with a Mac has already accepted their fate, and bought a PS2 (or PC) to play games on. If I ran Apple, I'd be paying off game companies left and right just to get stuff released at the same time as the PC versions. Gaming, I think, is what REALLY keeps Apple's market share from rising. In the home, at least.
Their licensing terms, according to the article, while agressive, are pretty much in-line with standard industry practice. So...who cares? If these companies don't want to pay the licensing fees, or agree to the licensing terms, then fuck them. They can reverse-engineer the shit. Isn't this the whole POINT of licensing agreements? To make a bunch of money off of companies that for whatever reason, don't want to be bothered with figuring out their own solution to the problem?
Quiet, man! You're giving the RIAA new ideas for lawsuits!
But you're right. Both Winamp and Gnutella and WASTE are simply tools. That can be used for breaking laws, or not.
Should a tool that can be used for both evil and good be made illegal because of the "evil" parts? Who knows. That's where the lawyers come in. Well, first the lobbyists, then the congressman, THEN the lawyers.
You read way too much sci-fi, my friend.
The reason we DON'T have orbital industry is that, as far as anyone can tell, there just isn't any point to it yet. There's nothing to DO in zero gravity that can't be done cheaper and easier here on earth.
Mining asteroids is a good idea, but it's so far off, it's irrelevant.
Positive image of women in Anime? Maybe. But that's only a secondary consideration to the producers of the stuff, I'm sure.
The real reason so much Anime has a female protagonist? Tits. That's it. Tits. I would think this is obvious.
There is NO reason any school's network should be getting killed by P2P traffic. An Allot (www.allot.com) NetEnforcer could throttle that shit down to the point that it wouldn't be a problem at all. Or block it entirely.
No student needs to do filesharing.
QoS people, QoS. Jesus.
I seem to recall reading a few years ago, during the boom, that "non-compete" clauses COULD NOT prevent you from taking a job for fear of getting sued. That they were basically bullshit, in fact. A whole "right to work" thing.
Anyone have the facts on this?
They're only "your" packets until they leave your computer. Then they are their packets, since they are on their network.
So yeah, they can sniff packets all they want. You agreed to that when you paid for their service.
Now, using what they find in your packets against you in court, or really doing anything with them other than protecting their own network/contracts...that's different.
What's happening? What's happening is, The Powers That Be have finally managed to convince the (stupid, sheep-like) public that giving up their privacy is the safest thing they can do. It all begins here, folks. The slow erosion of all your privacy, and then all your rights in general. It might take 20 years, but these evil fucks unfortunately have a lot of patience.
And they have been for years. Great support, overpriced, dull products. And, worst of all, McNealy himself. The whiniest CEO of all-time. I just don't see what Sun has to offer anyone these days.
11 megabits per second...
At that speed, it would take you 50 years to build a highway from the Library of Congress to the Grand Canyon and fill it with enough encyclopedias to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
So, no X-Box because Microsoft is EVIL, right?
I assume that you also aren't purchasing anything from Wal-Mart, don't buy Nike shoes or products of any kind, and drive a solar-powered vehicle so the terrorists don't get any of your money for oil?
You're a fucking idiot.