SCO claims some of Linux source code is theirs, but is only willing to show the actual infringing source code through a NDA. Why doesn't it make sense to me? I mean, if the code is in Linux, doesn't it mean anyone has access to the source code already? So what's the point in keeping it a secret with a NDA?
Music is great but it's not the most important thing in life.
I hope you mean that music consumption is not the most important thing in life. Because music in itself is very important. It is one of the few things that define humanity (i.e. sets us apart from all other animals)
This may be true, but it's not a question of money for him. He said:
"It's not good to charge people for using something which is like a social infrastructure. It also inhibits the development of the computer industry. The very basic infrastructure should be free,...."
So it's about his belief that such things shouldn't be charged for. And this belief leads him to simply disregard the question of money.
You know, there *are* things in life worth spending all your time/passion and not involving money. Being driven by money only leads to 1 of 2 things: either you make more money, or you lose all your money...In both cases, you lost your initial goals.
By the time games stop running smoothly on my current rig, I can go and buy another 3d card for $150-200, mabye upgrade my processor a bit, and everything'll once again run fine and dandy.
You do realize that you are allowed to buy hardware at those lower prices because a lot of consumers do buy the new stuff that keeps coming out, don't you?
If the majority of people would wait like you do, then hardware wouldn't be marketed as this (fast) pace, and in turn, you would end up paying the same price as everybody else for pretty much the same hardware as everybody else (less models, less choices, everything leveled out).
I'm not saying you are wrong to do this, it's actually pretty wise. What would be even wiser is for you to not to urge everybody to do the same (you'd lose your bargains if everyone would take your advice;)
Hackers, by that analogy, are not the drug addicts.
The analogy, as I understand it, only uses the drug addicts concept to adress the way to reduce the damage done by hacking. Not the need (urge?) felt by hackers to do damage.
Anyway, because there is no physical addiction to hacking (maybe psychological in some cases, but still not as strong as drug abuse), so the analogy is not such a good one in my opinion.
In my opinion, the only sustainable correlation you can make between violent video games (or violent TV shows) and violence in people is the following:
Most of the kids who play a lot of video games and watch a lot of TV happen to be kids that spend most of their time without parental supervision because their parents are busy working or generally do not give a shit what their children do. Such kids become lonely inidividuals over time, because their social skills lack the fundamental values and morale that are usually given by caring parents. And so they turn to such things as video games and TV (and D&D and sci-fi books and hanging out in streets to name just a few) to cope with the solitude.
It is that lack of presence, love and education from the parents that keep the kids from feeling good about themselves and life in general. And this is what gives them a tendency to be violent later on in life.
We hear about the high level of immersion that video games provide and how it can affect some people and make them violent. Once again, the link between the two is present, but the causality is flawed: the need to be immersed is only driven by the need to get cut from reality, because it is at times too difficult to bear.
The proof is that many other kids also spend a lot of time playing video games and never turn out to be violent. In fact, there are probably much more adults who have played video games all their youth and did not turn violent, simply because their parents, while letting them play video games alot, also cared and educated them well enough.
I am a good example of a person who has always loved video games (I have been playing almost each day of my life since I got my first Atari 2600 sometime in the 70's), but I am in no way what is considered violent.
So basically you are protesting against people who protest...
So much for your philosophical depth. You can't even realize the range of your own statements and how they're triggered by the exact same feelings/rationale than those protesters.
Furthermore, you seem to be suggesting that if we protest too much, the governing body will eventually shut us up (with their firing squad). You're basically saying that it's better to let them have their way, and mind your own business.
If you wish to shut up, that'll suit you for a while, until they take away something that you really care about (obviously not freedom of speech and social consciousness, which I suspect you will only fully grasp once you lose it).
You have had the right to express yourself freely here on./, without fear anyone would come after you (except by speech), although people with such short-sighted views as yourself shouldn't be allowed to play with such powerful toys as freedom of speech.
I'd rather spend a few minutes (hours?) fixing a buggy Windows system than spending days trying to explain the do's and dont's of complicated *nix system to my family members (and most of my friends).
You have to agree that Windows is easier than *nix for average non technically savvy people. Once they grasp the desktop/window methaphore and concepts of files and folders, they're usually doing pretty well.
But the real issue is about troubleshooting with them over the phone. It's much easier to guide someone through control panel applets and configuration dialogs than have them type at the shell prompt and have them read you the feedback/error messages after each command.
It's ok to complain about Microsoft, but at least complain about the right things, not the things that make it easy.
hehehe....I hope this will soon introduce a bug in computer clocks!!!
Last time such a bug appeared, I made a bundle as a consultant debugging millions of lines of code, to make sure the programs would pass the new millenium
If the Earth were the size of a billiard ball, the atmostphere would be about the thickness of the paint on the ball.
Your analogy is somewhat incorrect:
Diameter of Earth = 12760 km
Height of atmosphere = 1000 km
This means that the Earth's diameter, including its atmosphere is 14760 km.
If you take height of atmosphere (1000) and divide it by 14760, you get the fraction of 14760 that is the height of the atmosphere. Given those numbers: 1000 / 14760 = 0.068
Now, a standard billiard ball is 2.25 inches in diameter (with the paint coat). if you take that diameter and multiply it by 0.068, it would mean the paint coat is 0.153 inches. That's a little more than 1/8th of an inch!!!
I'm no expert in pool ball painting techniques, but 1/8th of an inch for paint seems excessive, especially since they are designed for durability to shocks.
A phone is a tool. I own the tool, the tool does not own me.
I have to agree. Cell phones are making slaves out of most people.
It reminds me of Bell Mobility's (in Canada) publicity, which was showing people outdoors. The narrator was talking about how much liberty you have when carrying a cell phone wherever you go.
Whereas actual liberty is the total opposite: there are MANY places where I choose not to be disturbed. The day you can't choose anymore, you lost that liberty.
Well, visible or not, you'd have to modulate/demodulate it, no?
Don't expect to look at the beam of data and interpret it.
It (probably) works on the same principles as with infrared/microwaves, but taking into account that visible light waves are affected by new kinds of interferences.
BTW: This whole concept reminds me of morse code transmitted using light pulses. Only faster. Way faster.
It's all about computing power. Surely you can cram more and more hardware into the computer to a point where it becomes better at thinking than you.
The real question is if every thought, emotion or human reflex is (or is not) a series of very elaborate computations. I believe so, since the brain is ultimately made up of matter (complex molecules interacting together, probably much like computers, only in subtle ways we are yet to understand).
This means its only a matter of time before machines act exactly like humans. Just give them enough transistors, memory and circuits and they'll perform as well as we do at anything.
Obviously, one has to be really stupid not to see the gimmick:
You pay the initial setup, and then they ignore you.
Sure, you get all service months free of charge, because they didn't eliminate a single SPAM message, but they ripped ya from 229.00$ from the start!!!
While we're at it, why bother reducing the greenhouse effect? Might as well accelerate the global warming process, so that we can all benefit from this incredible deal as soon as next year!! Let's give a break to the multi-billionnaire trans-oceanic transporters whose profits margins are so low...
Perhaps the floods occuring elsewhere on the planet will also open new routes for those ships!!! I would love that!
After all, money is all that counts (as long as you're still there to count it)
Once satisfied how it looks on MY box, I take a screen capture, crop the image to the browser's client area (gotta take out the scrollbars, it confuses users!!!)
convert to GIF
Configure Apache to recognize index.gif as default document.
Publish it.
What? the hyperlinks? they're image maps, of course!
What? Javascript? Well, I don't use scripting, because the really cross-browser stuff you can hack is really useless stuff anyway.
Very insightful. I too think this is the new strategy adopted by MS.
They can't buy off OSS, so they might as well leverage on it to make it their Wild Card in court, so they can continue stuffing more and more pre-installed software in Windows, charge you for it, and leave their "corporate" competitors in the dust...
After saying such a thing, I feel Ballmer blood flowing in my veins...
Ok, I have to agree, there are probably no unbiased professionnals.
Maybe then, one must rely of public opinions, such as personal experiences posted here.
Without being driven by petty materialism, wouldn't one recommend the solution that keeps their business afloat, as long as it doesn't hurt their patients?
There are many shades of gray when it comes to the integrity of health care professionals.
Being an optometrist, it's not likely he'll recommend something that would make him lose business.
However, the comments he made seem to make sense. But I'd try finding a similar opinion from an unbiased professional.
I myself wear lenses, and have thought of having laser surgery, but surgery is surgery. There's always a chance that it goes wrong. Unless you REALLY find it cumbersome (I know I don't: wearing disposable lenses is not more complicated than brushing my teeth every day), I wouldn't take the chance.
A friend of mine had the surgery and everything is fine for him (after 4 years)
Does that mean "we'll make more money from our software licenses than Linux does?"
It's a pointless comment, in the name of a pointless battle.
The bottom line is: If you feel that spending huge amounts of money on Windows software licenses is the only way your business can survive (whatever the reasons), then spend it.
On the other hand, if you're able to deal with the OpenSource stuff out there and everything it implies, go at it...
Why should one be better than the other? Do we all buy GM cars? no...
Do we all live in the suburbs? no...
Do we all eat vanilla ice cream? no...
Then why should we all use Windows? Or why should be all use Linux?
Having the choice is really the important thing here.
Slashdot Mirror
I wonder what the first sound was.
I heard it. In BigBangSound_1.wav, you can hear God taking in a very deep breath (before he hummed the Universe out).
Let me think here:
SCO claims some of Linux source code is theirs, but is only willing to show the actual infringing source code through a NDA. Why doesn't it make sense to me? I mean, if the code is in Linux, doesn't it mean anyone has access to the source code already? So what's the point in keeping it a secret with a NDA?
I must be missing something...
I hope you mean that music consumption is not the most important thing in life. Because music in itself is very important. It is one of the few things that define humanity (i.e. sets us apart from all other animals)
This may be true, but it's not a question of money for him. He said:
"It's not good to charge people for using something which is like a social infrastructure. It also inhibits the development of the computer industry. The very basic infrastructure should be free,...."
So it's about his belief that such things shouldn't be charged for. And this belief leads him to simply disregard the question of money.
You know, there *are* things in life worth spending all your time/passion and not involving money. Being driven by money only leads to 1 of 2 things: either you make more money, or you lose all your money...In both cases, you lost your initial goals.
How About this:
Where beginUpdate() and endUpdate() would ensure changes are gathered and then committed only once.
bah...Just writing this gives me a zillion ideas on how to use all the PHP 5 stuff...
You do realize that you are allowed to buy hardware at those lower prices because a lot of consumers do buy the new stuff that keeps coming out, don't you?
If the majority of people would wait like you do, then hardware wouldn't be marketed as this (fast) pace, and in turn, you would end up paying the same price as everybody else for pretty much the same hardware as everybody else (less models, less choices, everything leveled out).
I'm not saying you are wrong to do this, it's actually pretty wise. What would be even wiser is for you to not to urge everybody to do the same (you'd lose your bargains if everyone would take your advice ;)
Hackers, by that analogy, are not the drug addicts.
The analogy, as I understand it, only uses the drug addicts concept to adress the way to reduce the damage done by hacking. Not the need (urge?) felt by hackers to do damage.
Anyway, because there is no physical addiction to hacking (maybe psychological in some cases, but still not as strong as drug abuse), so the analogy is not such a good one in my opinion.
In my opinion, the only sustainable correlation you can make between violent video games (or violent TV shows) and violence in people is the following:
Most of the kids who play a lot of video games and watch a lot of TV happen to be kids that spend most of their time without parental supervision because their parents are busy working or generally do not give a shit what their children do. Such kids become lonely inidividuals over time, because their social skills lack the fundamental values and morale that are usually given by caring parents. And so they turn to such things as video games and TV (and D&D and sci-fi books and hanging out in streets to name just a few) to cope with the solitude.
It is that lack of presence, love and education from the parents that keep the kids from feeling good about themselves and life in general. And this is what gives them a tendency to be violent later on in life.
We hear about the high level of immersion that video games provide and how it can affect some people and make them violent. Once again, the link between the two is present, but the causality is flawed: the need to be immersed is only driven by the need to get cut from reality, because it is at times too difficult to bear.
The proof is that many other kids also spend a lot of time playing video games and never turn out to be violent. In fact, there are probably much more adults who have played video games all their youth and did not turn violent, simply because their parents, while letting them play video games alot, also cared and educated them well enough.
I am a good example of a person who has always loved video games (I have been playing almost each day of my life since I got my first Atari 2600 sometime in the 70's), but I am in no way what is considered violent.
So basically you are protesting against people who protest...
So much for your philosophical depth. You can't even realize the range of your own statements and how they're triggered by the exact same feelings/rationale than those protesters.
Furthermore, you seem to be suggesting that if we protest too much, the governing body will eventually shut us up (with their firing squad). You're basically saying that it's better to let them have their way, and mind your own business. If you wish to shut up, that'll suit you for a while, until they take away something that you really care about (obviously not freedom of speech and social consciousness, which I suspect you will only fully grasp once you lose it).
You have had the right to express yourself freely here on ./, without fear anyone would come after you (except by speech), although people with such short-sighted views as yourself shouldn't be allowed to play with such powerful toys as freedom of speech.
Well, well well.
Let me just reply this:
I'd rather spend a few minutes (hours?) fixing a buggy Windows system than spending days trying to explain the do's and dont's of complicated *nix system to my family members (and most of my friends).
You have to agree that Windows is easier than *nix for average non technically savvy people. Once they grasp the desktop/window methaphore and concepts of files and folders, they're usually doing pretty well.
But the real issue is about troubleshooting with them over the phone. It's much easier to guide someone through control panel applets and configuration dialogs than have them type at the shell prompt and have them read you the feedback/error messages after each command.
It's ok to complain about Microsoft, but at least complain about the right things, not the things that make it easy.
hehehe....I hope this will soon introduce a bug in computer clocks!!!
Last time such a bug appeared, I made a bundle as a consultant debugging millions of lines of code, to make sure the programs would pass the new millenium
If the Earth were the size of a billiard ball, the atmostphere would be about the thickness of the paint on the ball.
Your analogy is somewhat incorrect:
Diameter of Earth = 12760 km
Height of atmosphere = 1000 km
This means that the Earth's diameter, including its atmosphere is 14760 km.
If you take height of atmosphere (1000) and divide it by 14760, you get the fraction of 14760 that is the height of the atmosphere. Given those numbers: 1000 / 14760 = 0.068
Now, a standard billiard ball is 2.25 inches in diameter (with the paint coat). if you take that diameter and multiply it by 0.068, it would mean the paint coat is 0.153 inches. That's a little more than 1/8th of an inch!!!
I'm no expert in pool ball painting techniques, but 1/8th of an inch for paint seems excessive, especially since they are designed for durability to shocks.
I have to agree. Cell phones are making slaves out of most people.
It reminds me of Bell Mobility's (in Canada) publicity, which was showing people outdoors. The narrator was talking about how much liberty you have when carrying a cell phone wherever you go.
Whereas actual liberty is the total opposite: there are MANY places where I choose not to be disturbed. The day you can't choose anymore, you lost that liberty.
Well, visible or not, you'd have to modulate/demodulate it, no?
Don't expect to look at the beam of data and interpret it.
It (probably) works on the same principles as with infrared/microwaves, but taking into account that visible light waves are affected by new kinds of interferences.
BTW: This whole concept reminds me of morse code transmitted using light pulses. Only faster. Way faster.
The American Idol show does that too. And they make much more money at running the show than running a computer program.
It's all about computing power. Surely you can cram more and more hardware into the computer to a point where it becomes better at thinking than you.
The real question is if every thought, emotion or human reflex is (or is not) a series of very elaborate computations. I believe so, since the brain is ultimately made up of matter (complex molecules interacting together, probably much like computers, only in subtle ways we are yet to understand).
This means its only a matter of time before machines act exactly like humans. Just give them enough transistors, memory and circuits and they'll perform as well as we do at anything.
Just like masturbation makes you deaf...
Obviously, one has to be really stupid not to see the gimmick:
You pay the initial setup, and then they ignore you.
Sure, you get all service months free of charge, because they didn't eliminate a single SPAM message, but they ripped ya from 229.00$ from the start!!!
If that ain't theft, what is?
I was gonna comment the same thing.
While we're at it, why bother reducing the greenhouse effect? Might as well accelerate the global warming process, so that we can all benefit from this incredible deal as soon as next year!! Let's give a break to the multi-billionnaire trans-oceanic transporters whose profits margins are so low...
Perhaps the floods occuring elsewhere on the planet will also open new routes for those ships!!! I would love that!
After all, money is all that counts (as long as you're still there to count it)
Here's my methodology:
What? the hyperlinks? they're image maps, of course!
What? Javascript? Well, I don't use scripting, because the really cross-browser stuff you can hack is really useless stuff anyway.
Very insightful. I too think this is the new strategy adopted by MS.
They can't buy off OSS, so they might as well leverage on it to make it their Wild Card in court, so they can continue stuffing more and more pre-installed software in Windows, charge you for it, and leave their "corporate" competitors in the dust...
After saying such a thing, I feel Ballmer blood flowing in my veins...
Ok, I have to agree, there are probably no unbiased professionnals.
Maybe then, one must rely of public opinions, such as personal experiences posted here.
Without being driven by petty materialism, wouldn't one recommend the solution that keeps their business afloat, as long as it doesn't hurt their patients?
There are many shades of gray when it comes to the integrity of health care professionals.
Being an optometrist, it's not likely he'll recommend something that would make him lose business.
However, the comments he made seem to make sense. But I'd try finding a similar opinion from an unbiased professional.
I myself wear lenses, and have thought of having laser surgery, but surgery is surgery. There's always a chance that it goes wrong. Unless you REALLY find it cumbersome (I know I don't: wearing disposable lenses is not more complicated than brushing my teeth every day), I wouldn't take the chance.
A friend of mine had the surgery and everything is fine for him (after 4 years)
Net worth: 0.02$
Does that mean "we'll make more money from our software licenses than Linux does?"
It's a pointless comment, in the name of a pointless battle.
The bottom line is: If you feel that spending huge amounts of money on Windows software licenses is the only way your business can survive (whatever the reasons), then spend it.
On the other hand, if you're able to deal with the OpenSource stuff out there and everything it implies, go at it...
Why should one be better than the other? Do we all buy GM cars? no...
Do we all live in the suburbs? no...
Do we all eat vanilla ice cream? no...
Then why should we all use Windows? Or why should be all use Linux?
Having the choice is really the important thing here.
It would be ideal to be able to client-side code in a variety of languages, but suddenly that means every end user has to install a pile of languages.
Isn't that a key feature of the .NET platform? You can build an application using any language, even mix multiple languages if you wish.
Oh wait...Thinking of it, maybe that's the ONLY key feature in that platform...