the fact that you're an anonymous coward makes me not want to say anything here but i will anyway. This isn't the United States attitude. I think the companies are just ticked they aren't getting the free service, and for some reason they think they might be held reliable in some way. Other than those excuses, i don't see why this is happening. Certain companies are just companies, they think with their wallets than with their brains. I am curious if they could sue though. Then again, i'd just take my expertise elsewhere, where it will be appreciated rather than take advantage of or questioned.
Bah, this is rediculous, they aren't on the clock, they aren't getting paid for it, they know this. So now anyone who works on open source software in their free time they're going to demand pay as well? No, i think not. If someone likes helping people, or writing software or solving problems (which is usually the case) they can do that in their free time and not get paid for it, why would they think that?
Seriously, they have to notice that TONS of foreign countries are even thinking of switching to an open source solution. People ARE realizing it might be cheaper to go the OSS solution, no, it won't hurt them any time soon, but it's certainly got to be pissing them off a little at a time. Even if it never hurts them, it certainly makes me happy knowing there are intelligent people out there in places where it matters.
Is there effort to stop GNU/Linux and Open Source just recreating the wheel and making all the software available for the Linux developers available in Windows? Hrm.. "Look we have everything that they have, and then some!".. course you can't beat the price of Linux and friends.
Logik
Age deciding what consoles are popular?
on
The Aging Gamer
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Maybe the age thing has to do with the fact that Nintendo used to be the most popular game system on the planet, when we were younger Mario was great, now that most have grown up, maybe they're into the more advanced type of games, or atleast the more mature games and that's why the PS2 is selling like crazy. Then again, Nintendo is selling the gamecube like hot cakes as well. I just can't get enough mario myself, as childish as it may seem, it's always a joy to play a new mario game, they're always insightful and intriguing on a more technical angle, especially the switch to 3d, that was amazing. and the newest is nothign short of amazing as well.
Quite some time ago, there were manyreports of an AOL client for Linux being leaked to the net, even on/.. I have tried and used this AOL client, it was an internal build that only worked on their networks, so it was really pointless, but yes it did run, and just sat there. So, it's probably not running on Wine at all, though there was one comment from a guy that WINE CVS does run AOL7. We'll have to wait and see. There's also this application for Linux users
Logik
Ok, apple is a hardware company, why could they not make their own x86 motherboard, much the same way they do now, with something that says OS X can be installed on this machine, but only if the machine has that capability? They could easily adapt x86 hardware to their liking so they can continue to be a hardware company. They wouldn't have ported everything to x86 if they had no possible reason for it. SO with that said, they create their own motherboard, support only hardware okayed and tested by apple (this would help keep the driver support requirement to a reasonable level). Redesign their cases to fit the new motherboard, etc, etc, and release as seen fit. The only downfall here is that all developers would have to recompile their applications for x86, this is the only downfall i can see. But if it has to be done it has to be done. I don't see how apple can stick to motorola processors for long, they just don't put forth enough effort to stay on top. IBM is probably the solution they're looking for, and will likely happen, but who knows. An x86 based apple machine is a possibility. Which brings me back to the original question, why would they create a port of OS X for x86 if they wouldn't have a remote possibility of using it?
or does everyone else wish that apple would just say what they're looking into and what they're not looking into? and possibly why they are or are not looking into said type of processor? What little knowledge I have of apple is that they are quite secretive up until boiling point. This could of course hurt their sales so i could understand why. But we've already had comfirmation of a x86 version of OS X, so wouldn't it seem more likely they'd go to this than something out of the ordinary? Think of it this way, they probably have 2 versions of OS X, PPC and x86, if anything falls through with IBM, it'll most definately be x86 for the future. Since from what I know, Motorola and IBM are the only PPC chip manufactures, correct? I don't think they'd try to port it to more than 2 architectures, seems illogical and time consuming.
Well, I didn't read the article, but i heard about this from osnews.com i believe, that it was just netscape 7. I imagine the use of netscape is a big deal because of the old brand name, now it's coming bundled in an OS, as it used to be, hoping the name will become familiar again.
The thing is, the AOL "Client" will eventually make it to linux, i remember actually running what was a so called aol client for linux, it ran, but wouldn't let me sign on.. as i said before it's inevitable, IF these easy to use distro's actually come up with a little market share... AOL will want in no doubt, and linux/xandros/etc will find more users because aol is bundled with it and its "easy to use"
Much to our disappointment, companies like Lindows and the other "easy to use" distros are trying to convert those windows users (yes the ones that don't know how to run word if the interface suddenly looked a little funny, like gtk or qt, atleast that's the argument). In other words, having AOL for linux is a good thing for THEM, not necessarily for US the ones that know how to use our machines just fine the way they are. So with this wonderful "ease of use" comes dumbed down applications and windows looking/acting distro's. AOL has been a prime candidate for this for a long time. it was inevitable.
Something similar to bluetooth would be nice. You have a PDA type device, say incredibly small that you can carry with you and you add the information from your computer, and all devices within range of it using your user/pass or whatever way you want to authenticate with it and then you have access to all that information... just an idea i guess...
You still have a choice of using another Distribution, there's no one saying "You must use redhat." RedHat is making this for Corporate use, where a unified desktop is probably a good thing. Not for home users who want a specific look. There's nothing that says you can't change the theme of kde or gnome once you get Redhat installed either (i didn't read the article i'm just pointing out the obvious with why redhat is doing it and why its a good thing for THEM, not necessarily for YOU). Seriously, i like the look, it needs some work but the GNOME version is very smooth, i honestly think GNOME looks better than KDE now, but its still lacking the configurability of KDE. I'm seriously thinking of trying the next version of Redhat to come out and i haven't used RH since 5.0.
That Nad player you were talking about, it was originally made by a man named Tony Million, who know works for Sonique. The tech behind Nad is also used in Sonique from what I understand.
Don't convert, just rerip and reencode, or keep your mp3 an mp3 and download all the new stuff in ogg if that's your thing. mp3 and ogg are both lossy formats, and lossy in different ways, by reencoding one lossy format in another will just degrade quality. And no, opposite of what many newbies believe, converting an mp3 to wav does NOT bring back the quality that was lost. So do EVERYONE a favor, IF you do convert your mp3's to ogg, don't put them anywhere near a p2p or file sharing network because i certainly wouldn't want to download them.
Logik
I see people complaining about the reasoning behind having so many games that are all the same. Doom, Quake, Unreal, Tribes, etc. Well, id will stop making games like Doom and Quake when either a) they want to try something new or b) when they stop making money. Obviously they're still making money as they're probably some of the best paid programmers out there right now. And if they're still making money, obviously then people are buying these games, even outnumbering those that pirate the games. which along should keep you amazed.
I should think about this more than i do before posting a reply to my own post every time. This ties in with the open source books (if you remember the python book post yesterday). If you were Borland or Microsoft, wouldn't it be beneficial to you in the long run to educate people and make them familiar with your products? Release free books to students interested in your products. The more people using your product (this is how microsoft makes their money, they do have a monopoly after all) the more money you make. By educating them with your product, there will be more people using your product and you sell more product. It doesn't even have to be a real quality book, paperback or PDF with print well enough to read on paper that isn't incredibly good, just make it readable and of enough quality to make it last the time the student will need it.
I've seen a few people say that they bought software after they learned to use a pirated copy. I wish more companies could embrace this concept. They gain a new user who will use their software, unless it changes in such a drastic way that its no longer useful, for allowing someone to learn it for free on their own time. Over time, this seems like it could make that company more money, since now you have someone else who once able to afford the software will likely buy atleast one copy of it.
I don't think it should be legal for SCHOOLS to pirate software, but i do believe that "copying" the software should be, microsoft has all this wonderful jazz about not being able to copy the software. Well, say you have 400 computers, i don't want to have to install it on 1 computer at a time for 400 computers. This seems stupid to me and places where multiple copies will benefit it should be allowed, as long as they have 400 licenses. It isn't going to hurt microsoft any to let a place of learning to copy a couple cd's to ease installation, it would at least give the school a reason to stay with MS for allowing them to actually do something that would HELP them instead of HINDER them. This goes for all companies that have this type of clause in their EULA.
Also just to bring it up, most college students (myself included) can't afford even the "acedemic" pricing of certain applications. It still adds up really fast when you have to buy multiple applications that you really want to learn to use. $200 for Office XP, for me, that's two thirds the cost of a semesters worth of books. If i could, i'd certainly buy these applications, i write software, i know its difficult, but in order to get people to use your software, you MUST provide a way for them to learn it without blowing lots of cash to find out, 'oops this isn't what i thought it was going to be.'
Alias Wavefront is doing things the right way, FULL copy of Maya, all it does is throw in a different type of saving mechanism and a watermark in all the final renders. But it lets you learn to use the application as intended, buy the full application when you can to work on commercial or personal things.
O'Reilly's Open Books
on
Think Python
·
· Score: 1
Personally I've run into 1 kernel panic in the 3 years i've been running linux. and it was my fault. Now if someone could create a patch for xp, i'd be much more likely to see this morse code stuff =)
Yea, about 8 years ago when i first got into computers, my dad's friend Moe had a huge projection tv, you know the ones where its like a theatre with the big box that you have to mount on your ceiling or put it on the floor. Well, we played Mario on it... it was fun seeing Mario the same size as us... now with this IMAX thing, mario will be like the marshmellow man in ghostbusters. WOOO...
Logik
Well, kind of, i believe the limit is 15 megs. But that doesn't keep people from using winrar to just split the files into large groups of files and uploading a "set" of files for an app or game. It works kind of like this. Say, Warcraft 3 for example. It's 1 cd, I could create a cd image of it, and rar it, telling it to split it into 15 meg chunks. Then uploading a seperate email for each file. Emails would be named Warcraft 3 ISO CD 1 [xx/xx], and you'd have to download all the parts (similar to newsgroups) and unrar it into the original ISO. That's what the server apps are for, you say you want files x through y and it sends them to you automagically.
As an example, AOL. I'm not sure if you've ever used it. My parents use it (Delphi's $3/mo or whatever), and I occassionally use it (as i started out on aol many years ago. Do you have ANY idea how much warez/mp3/porn goes through AOL's email servers? I could direct you to chat rooms where its all done if you need examples. AOL knows about it, they block the chat rooms that they use, but they don't block email because its being used for it, quite heavily i might add. Its the only place i know of where i can have 100 gigs of warez in my mailbox and consistantly download it at rates of 100k/sec or more.
I think he was simply stating that, file sharing apps are almost always used for immoral activities. It's highly doubtful ISP's would block FTP and HTTP access. Sorry this pretty much kills any use of the internet for nearly EVERYONE. Besides, he said it affected 5% of their users. Big deal. FTP, HTTP, email, usenet, they are used for other things than immoral activities. BUT, A LARGE MAJORITY of p2p apps are used for MOSTLY immoral activities. Which is why they are blocking it. Not that I agree with it, but their reasoning is logical. They can't really play police as far as i'm concerned though. It shouldn't be blocked. I imagine if EVERYONE complained about it, they'd remove that block, but since it doesn't affect many people it'll stay.
Slashdot Mirror
the fact that you're an anonymous coward makes me not want to say anything here but i will anyway. This isn't the United States attitude. I think the companies are just ticked they aren't getting the free service, and for some reason they think they might be held reliable in some way. Other than those excuses, i don't see why this is happening. Certain companies are just companies, they think with their wallets than with their brains. I am curious if they could sue though. Then again, i'd just take my expertise elsewhere, where it will be appreciated rather than take advantage of or questioned.
Kyle
Bah, this is rediculous, they aren't on the clock, they aren't getting paid for it, they know this. So now anyone who works on open source software in their free time they're going to demand pay as well? No, i think not. If someone likes helping people, or writing software or solving problems (which is usually the case) they can do that in their free time and not get paid for it, why would they think that?
Kyle
Seriously, they have to notice that TONS of foreign countries are even thinking of switching to an open source solution. People ARE realizing it might be cheaper to go the OSS solution, no, it won't hurt them any time soon, but it's certainly got to be pissing them off a little at a time. Even if it never hurts them, it certainly makes me happy knowing there are intelligent people out there in places where it matters.
Is there effort to stop GNU/Linux and Open Source just recreating the wheel and making all the software available for the Linux developers available in Windows? Hrm.. "Look we have everything that they have, and then some!".. course you can't beat the price of Linux and friends.
Logik
Maybe the age thing has to do with the fact that Nintendo used to be the most popular game system on the planet, when we were younger Mario was great, now that most have grown up, maybe they're into the more advanced type of games, or atleast the more mature games and that's why the PS2 is selling like crazy. Then again, Nintendo is selling the gamecube like hot cakes as well. I just can't get enough mario myself, as childish as it may seem, it's always a joy to play a new mario game, they're always insightful and intriguing on a more technical angle, especially the switch to 3d, that was amazing. and the newest is nothign short of amazing as well.
Logik
Quite some time ago, there were many reports of an AOL client for Linux being leaked to the net, even on /.. I have tried and used this AOL client, it was an internal build that only worked on their networks, so it was really pointless, but yes it did run, and just sat there. So, it's probably not running on Wine at all, though there was one comment from a guy that WINE CVS does run AOL7. We'll have to wait and see. There's also this application for Linux users
Logik
Ok, apple is a hardware company, why could they not make their own x86 motherboard, much the same way they do now, with something that says OS X can be installed on this machine, but only if the machine has that capability? They could easily adapt x86 hardware to their liking so they can continue to be a hardware company. They wouldn't have ported everything to x86 if they had no possible reason for it. SO with that said, they create their own motherboard, support only hardware okayed and tested by apple (this would help keep the driver support requirement to a reasonable level). Redesign their cases to fit the new motherboard, etc, etc, and release as seen fit. The only downfall here is that all developers would have to recompile their applications for x86, this is the only downfall i can see. But if it has to be done it has to be done. I don't see how apple can stick to motorola processors for long, they just don't put forth enough effort to stay on top. IBM is probably the solution they're looking for, and will likely happen, but who knows. An x86 based apple machine is a possibility. Which brings me back to the original question, why would they create a port of OS X for x86 if they wouldn't have a remote possibility of using it?
Logik
or does everyone else wish that apple would just say what they're looking into and what they're not looking into? and possibly why they are or are not looking into said type of processor? What little knowledge I have of apple is that they are quite secretive up until boiling point. This could of course hurt their sales so i could understand why. But we've already had comfirmation of a x86 version of OS X, so wouldn't it seem more likely they'd go to this than something out of the ordinary? Think of it this way, they probably have 2 versions of OS X, PPC and x86, if anything falls through with IBM, it'll most definately be x86 for the future. Since from what I know, Motorola and IBM are the only PPC chip manufactures, correct? I don't think they'd try to port it to more than 2 architectures, seems illogical and time consuming.
Logik
Well, I didn't read the article, but i heard about this from osnews.com i believe, that it was just netscape 7. I imagine the use of netscape is a big deal because of the old brand name, now it's coming bundled in an OS, as it used to be, hoping the name will become familiar again.
The thing is, the AOL "Client" will eventually make it to linux, i remember actually running what was a so called aol client for linux, it ran, but wouldn't let me sign on.. as i said before it's inevitable, IF these easy to use distro's actually come up with a little market share... AOL will want in no doubt, and linux/xandros/etc will find more users because aol is bundled with it and its "easy to use"
Logik
Much to our disappointment, companies like Lindows and the other "easy to use" distros are trying to convert those windows users (yes the ones that don't know how to run word if the interface suddenly looked a little funny, like gtk or qt, atleast that's the argument). In other words, having AOL for linux is a good thing for THEM, not necessarily for US the ones that know how to use our machines just fine the way they are. So with this wonderful "ease of use" comes dumbed down applications and windows looking/acting distro's. AOL has been a prime candidate for this for a long time. it was inevitable.
Logik
Something similar to bluetooth would be nice. You have a PDA type device, say incredibly small that you can carry with you and you add the information from your computer, and all devices within range of it using your user/pass or whatever way you want to authenticate with it and then you have access to all that information... just an idea i guess...
Logik
You still have a choice of using another Distribution, there's no one saying "You must use redhat." RedHat is making this for Corporate use, where a unified desktop is probably a good thing. Not for home users who want a specific look. There's nothing that says you can't change the theme of kde or gnome once you get Redhat installed either (i didn't read the article i'm just pointing out the obvious with why redhat is doing it and why its a good thing for THEM, not necessarily for YOU). Seriously, i like the look, it needs some work but the GNOME version is very smooth, i honestly think GNOME looks better than KDE now, but its still lacking the configurability of KDE. I'm seriously thinking of trying the next version of Redhat to come out and i haven't used RH since 5.0.
Logik
That Nad player you were talking about, it was originally made by a man named Tony Million, who know works for Sonique. The tech behind Nad is also used in Sonique from what I understand.
Don't convert, just rerip and reencode, or keep your mp3 an mp3 and download all the new stuff in ogg if that's your thing. mp3 and ogg are both lossy formats, and lossy in different ways, by reencoding one lossy format in another will just degrade quality. And no, opposite of what many newbies believe, converting an mp3 to wav does NOT bring back the quality that was lost. So do EVERYONE a favor, IF you do convert your mp3's to ogg, don't put them anywhere near a p2p or file sharing network because i certainly wouldn't want to download them. Logik
I see people complaining about the reasoning behind having so many games that are all the same. Doom, Quake, Unreal, Tribes, etc. Well, id will stop making games like Doom and Quake when either a) they want to try something new or b) when they stop making money. Obviously they're still making money as they're probably some of the best paid programmers out there right now. And if they're still making money, obviously then people are buying these games, even outnumbering those that pirate the games. which along should keep you amazed.
I should think about this more than i do before posting a reply to my own post every time. This ties in with the open source books (if you remember the python book post yesterday). If you were Borland or Microsoft, wouldn't it be beneficial to you in the long run to educate people and make them familiar with your products? Release free books to students interested in your products. The more people using your product (this is how microsoft makes their money, they do have a monopoly after all) the more money you make. By educating them with your product, there will be more people using your product and you sell more product. It doesn't even have to be a real quality book, paperback or PDF with print well enough to read on paper that isn't incredibly good, just make it readable and of enough quality to make it last the time the student will need it.
Logik
I've seen a few people say that they bought software after they learned to use a pirated copy. I wish more companies could embrace this concept. They gain a new user who will use their software, unless it changes in such a drastic way that its no longer useful, for allowing someone to learn it for free on their own time. Over time, this seems like it could make that company more money, since now you have someone else who once able to afford the software will likely buy atleast one copy of it.
I don't think it should be legal for SCHOOLS to pirate software, but i do believe that "copying" the software should be, microsoft has all this wonderful jazz about not being able to copy the software. Well, say you have 400 computers, i don't want to have to install it on 1 computer at a time for 400 computers. This seems stupid to me and places where multiple copies will benefit it should be allowed, as long as they have 400 licenses. It isn't going to hurt microsoft any to let a place of learning to copy a couple cd's to ease installation, it would at least give the school a reason to stay with MS for allowing them to actually do something that would HELP them instead of HINDER them. This goes for all companies that have this type of clause in their EULA.
Also just to bring it up, most college students (myself included) can't afford even the "acedemic" pricing of certain applications. It still adds up really fast when you have to buy multiple applications that you really want to learn to use. $200 for Office XP, for me, that's two thirds the cost of a semesters worth of books. If i could, i'd certainly buy these applications, i write software, i know its difficult, but in order to get people to use your software, you MUST provide a way for them to learn it without blowing lots of cash to find out, 'oops this isn't what i thought it was going to be.'
Alias Wavefront is doing things the right way, FULL copy of Maya, all it does is throw in a different type of saving mechanism and a watermark in all the final renders. But it lets you learn to use the application as intended, buy the full application when you can to work on commercial or personal things.
You can view certain books by O'Reilly on their Open Book page, located here at http://oreilly.com/openbook/
Logik
Found another one in my bookmarks i forgot to mention, Art Of Assembly
Practical PostgreSQL
Using Samba
Personally I thought both were very well written, the samba book has helped me greatly.
Personally I've run into 1 kernel panic in the 3 years i've been running linux. and it was my fault. Now if someone could create a patch for xp, i'd be much more likely to see this morse code stuff =)
Logik
Yea, about 8 years ago when i first got into computers, my dad's friend Moe had a huge projection tv, you know the ones where its like a theatre with the big box that you have to mount on your ceiling or put it on the floor. Well, we played Mario on it... it was fun seeing Mario the same size as us... now with this IMAX thing, mario will be like the marshmellow man in ghostbusters. WOOO... Logik
Well, kind of, i believe the limit is 15 megs. But that doesn't keep people from using winrar to just split the files into large groups of files and uploading a "set" of files for an app or game. It works kind of like this. Say, Warcraft 3 for example. It's 1 cd, I could create a cd image of it, and rar it, telling it to split it into 15 meg chunks. Then uploading a seperate email for each file. Emails would be named Warcraft 3 ISO CD 1 [xx/xx], and you'd have to download all the parts (similar to newsgroups) and unrar it into the original ISO. That's what the server apps are for, you say you want files x through y and it sends them to you automagically.
As an example, AOL. I'm not sure if you've ever used it. My parents use it (Delphi's $3/mo or whatever), and I occassionally use it (as i started out on aol many years ago. Do you have ANY idea how much warez/mp3/porn goes through AOL's email servers? I could direct you to chat rooms where its all done if you need examples. AOL knows about it, they block the chat rooms that they use, but they don't block email because its being used for it, quite heavily i might add. Its the only place i know of where i can have 100 gigs of warez in my mailbox and consistantly download it at rates of 100k/sec or more.
I think he was simply stating that, file sharing apps are almost always used for immoral activities. It's highly doubtful ISP's would block FTP and HTTP access. Sorry this pretty much kills any use of the internet for nearly EVERYONE. Besides, he said it affected 5% of their users. Big deal. FTP, HTTP, email, usenet, they are used for other things than immoral activities. BUT, A LARGE MAJORITY of p2p apps are used for MOSTLY immoral activities. Which is why they are blocking it. Not that I agree with it, but their reasoning is logical. They can't really play police as far as i'm concerned though. It shouldn't be blocked. I imagine if EVERYONE complained about it, they'd remove that block, but since it doesn't affect many people it'll stay.