Proprietary software helps me pay my bills each month and it does for millions of others.
The trend I find disturbing on/. is the fact that any post which supports going against propietary copyright is considered Insightful or Interesting while posts that are in support of honoring commercial copyright are seen as Troll or Flamebait.
Virus writers and crackers justify their crafts in a similar manner. They claim to create jobs because of the need they feed for security and antivirus products and services. Yeah. And the muggers, rapists and theives keep policemen employed.
I'm not being holier than thou, here. I used to pirate software back in the AppleIIe days. I had some software (Locksmith) that made bypassing copy protections pretty easy. But was I somehow helping these software companies? Was it even a consideration? No. I was just a high school student who wanted to play free games. I quit doing it as my morals became more developed.
All I'm saying is that you should do what you do, but don't try to rationalize it. These companies don't owe you anything except a license when you pay for it. I use and love free software. If I can get a good free software or open source solution, I will use it and support the development effort with my wallet. But I also think that proprietary software has its place and can be considered a good thing as long as it does not stifle innovation. We do not need to kill the corporation to have our open source stuff.
I don't think so. The mass of open source advocates I know are advocates not because of the dollar cost but because of the merits of open source itself. The source is open, and is modifiable and redistributable. This means that a developer with a good idea can apply it to an existing tool without reinventing the entire tool, assuming you preserve the license on your new product. This allows many great minds to contribute to a project rather than a closed group.
I do contribute money to a few of my favorite projects because I want to do my small part to ensure their future development.
Think free as in speech, not free as in beer - I'm sure you've heard that one before.
From a show I saw recently, I believe the accepted term is now "autistic savant" because the afflicted people are not idiots at all. They are simply socially crippled and don't interact well.
Actually, it sounds like they want proof of his birth name plus a disclaimer whenever he uses his name. This is more than just giving them a birth certificate. A quote from the article:
Mr. Siegel magnanimously allowed I could continue to use my own name if I could prove that I had come by it legally,
and if I added a disclaimer to everything I wrote in the future, "clearly indicating that [you are] not the same Bill Wyman who was a member of the Rolling Stones."
I hope we get to hear the final outcome of this one.
I repaired a few of them. Many of the problems I had was due to the metal switches creeping out of alignment on the circuit board. I found you could peel back the adhesive film over the switches, re-align them and put the adhesive back to correct responsiveness problems. It wasn't long-lasting, but it worked for a while.
...but I have a two year old son. Not a clean room in the house.
Hey! There's peanut butter in my satellite! Daddy! You got your peanut butter in my satellite...
I run Unreal Tournament 2003 on my Linux distro... straight out of the box. Looks as good as the Windows implementation.
Given, that's only one game (but there have been other ports), and most are not ever available in a Linux port like that, but let me answer your question as to "why bother".
I bother because I like Linux. Games aren't everything, so for the 90 percent of my computing that is not gaming, it's worth it to me to keep my machine Windows free.
Thanks for the Coke all over my computer screen...sheesh.
Re:Back in the 80s
on
Airborne Mouse
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
This is more revolutionary than the mercury-switch controllers. The Atari system controllers were just five switches. One for each of up, down, left, right and one for a fire button. diagonals were achieved by closing two switches. There was not the fine control you ordinarily want with a mouse. A simple mercury switch is only an on/off device. It would not measure degree of tilt.
I can't say definitively that you are wrong, but I don't think the postal service is a greatly profitable industry. I don't think there is a considerable profit margin for waht they mail. AOL ships these things bulk rate which is a reduction from standard mailing. The labor cost to process all these has to eat up a large portion of what they charge. i don't know... I'm not confident is helps the rest of the US population with postal costs. It does keep more postal workers in jobs, however.
Learn about communication, negotiation, and salesmanship. You don't have to learn golf, but you should learn how to engineer a deal. Those are skills that tend to be marketable even the roughest of times.
I agree with everything you've said, but especially this paragraph. When I was in my early career, I used to say that I would never stoop to kissing up to management. I was wrong. It's called playing politics, and it's absolutely key to keeping a good rapport with they guys deciding on your raises, etc.
"in many cases", you say. That implies to me that some would buy, wouldn't you agree?
Many more say they would never buy the product, yet they continue to use it. I believe that many of that group would buy it if they did not have the option to get it free.
It's not a 100% loss of profits per copy, but I believe there is a loss.
For me, it seems that setting concrete goals is too limiting. I prefer to change with my situation and try to enjoy it. I try to let my mood (and my personal ethics) rule, to some degree.
My greatest current goals are to raise my son to be respectful, outgoing and happy and to be the best husband that I can be to my wife. Being the best husband and father that I can requires changing with the situation. Spending all my time on career goals may make me richer and provide a level of comfort as far as money and posessions, but I may have found out by later in life that my son would have liked me to be around more to play ball rather than be in the office. My wife may have wished I was around more to provide her with emotional support.
Personally, I feel that a person has to be somewhat fluid in the way they handle the their lives. Iguess you could say I feel the journey is more important than the destination.
Having said all that, I suppose I am very stringent with putting my family ahead of everything else, so I guess that being a good husband and father is my stringent goal. All other things have to bend to fit that goal, however.
Everybody measures success in their own way, however...
Re:Guess who can't wait for this!!!
on
Going Up?
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Yeah, and you can bet some damn kid will push all the buttons on the way up, too.
Simmer down, now... -SNL skit reference, no attempt to simulate the accents used...
Really, though, I thought the comment you are reacting to was an attempt to point out exactly what you are saying. At least that's the way I saw it.
Although there is a thread of bias against large corporations here, I think the real negativity towards AOL tends to be from those who don't like the infusion of the clueless into internet society. It used to be the realm of the geek. Now everyone participates, and the noise to signal ratio has gone way up.
I don't harbor negativity towards AOL for this. Rather, I feel that developers have done their job well when an interface disguises underlying complexities. AOL's interface allows my parents to get online without extensive training
Microsoft, on the other hand, is a different matter for most of us. For me, I dislike Microsoft, not for their monopoly, but for their methods of acheiving it and maintaining it. If you haven't already, read The Halloween Documents. They expose the kind of things that Microsoft does to hurt the Internet, hurt healthy competition and ultimately hurt the consumer.
For me, my enjoyment of Linux has nothing to do with Microsoft. I am a computer hobbyist, and the learning I can to with Linux makes it fun for me. I would have no problem with Microsoft having a monopoly over the commercial market as long as they were doing it ethically. The market should be won by having a better product, not by destroying competition through underhanded and arguably illegal means.
You may see Linux listed for $100+, but you don't have to pay for it. It can be downloaded for free or you can legally copy the core disks from a friend. At that, $100 is still less than $300.
XP does not run all software. XP runs all Windows software. It can no more run a Linux binary and than a Linux box can run a Windows application.... oh, wait a minute... there are emulators such as WINE that do allow Windows apps to run under Linux. Score one more for Linux.
There are native Linux apps for every purpose that I need. I run StarOffice currently for word processing, spreadsheets, etc. Konqueror works great as my web browser. I can scan, burn CD's, watch DVD's, play games, listen to my MP3's, etc. What am I not able to do that you can do under Windows.
The only places where I see Linux having a disadvantage is in the commercial software market. The software is not on the shelves of your local Best Buy.
Some people consider maintenance/configuration to be too hard under Linux. I would argue that yes, it takes more work up front, but once you've done that work you can rest easy. With Windows, I'm always wondering when the next lock-up will happen.
I believe that what you've said matches peoples' perceptions. But in this case, perception is not reality.
It was early nineties... I mentioned that it was eight or nine years ago... might have been more. Yes, I likely did waste my money. My priorities were different back then, before family and kids, etc.
I
You know, it was about 8 or 9 years ago when people were saying "why do you need that much space?" regarding the 450MB hard drive in my very sexy 486DX2 machine (why do you need one that is that fast?) with a whopping 2MB of memory.
As more capacity becomes available, developers can build things that were previously not practical because of previous limitations. You may not need the capacity with your existing stuff, but the new stuff will likely take advantage of the large drive.
Slashdot Mirror
Ummm...Someone doesn't know what they are talking about.
I played Castle Wolfenstein when I was in jr. high on an Apple IIe.
This was years and years before Wolfenstein 3D came out....
Supporting docs at this link
I agree with you.
Proprietary software helps me pay my bills each month and it does for millions of others.
The trend I find disturbing on /. is the fact that any post which supports going against propietary copyright is considered Insightful or Interesting while posts that are in support of honoring commercial copyright are seen as Troll or Flamebait.
Virus writers and crackers justify their crafts in a similar manner. They claim to create jobs because of the need they feed for security and antivirus products and services. Yeah. And the muggers, rapists and theives keep policemen employed.
I'm not being holier than thou, here. I used to pirate software back in the AppleIIe days. I had some software (Locksmith) that made bypassing copy protections pretty easy. But was I somehow helping these software companies? Was it even a consideration? No. I was just a high school student who wanted to play free games. I quit doing it as my morals became more developed.
All I'm saying is that you should do what you do, but don't try to rationalize it. These companies don't owe you anything except a license when you pay for it. I use and love free software. If I can get a good free software or open source solution, I will use it and support the development effort with my wallet. But I also think that proprietary software has its place and can be considered a good thing as long as it does not stifle innovation. We do not need to kill the corporation to have our open source stuff.
I don't think so. The mass of open source advocates I know are advocates not because of the dollar cost but because of the merits of open source itself. The source is open, and is modifiable and redistributable. This means that a developer with a good idea can apply it to an existing tool without reinventing the entire tool, assuming you preserve the license on your new product. This allows many great minds to contribute to a project rather than a closed group.
I do contribute money to a few of my favorite projects because I want to do my small part to ensure their future development.
Think free as in speech, not free as in beer - I'm sure you've heard that one before.
From a show I saw recently, I believe the accepted term is now "autistic savant" because the afflicted people are not idiots at all. They are simply socially crippled and don't interact well.
Actually, it sounds like they want proof of his birth name plus a disclaimer whenever he uses his name. This is more than just giving them a birth certificate. A quote from the article:
I hope we get to hear the final outcome of this one.
I repaired a few of them. Many of the problems I had was due to the metal switches creeping out of alignment on the circuit board. I found you could peel back the adhesive film over the switches, re-align them and put the adhesive back to correct responsiveness problems. It wasn't long-lasting, but it worked for a while.
...your satellite in my peanut butter... typing too fast....brain too slow...(old Reeses reference intended, but blown)
...but I have a two year old son. Not a clean room in the house. Hey! There's peanut butter in my satellite! Daddy! You got your peanut butter in my satellite...
I run Unreal Tournament 2003 on my Linux distro... straight out of the box. Looks as good as the Windows implementation. Given, that's only one game (but there have been other ports), and most are not ever available in a Linux port like that, but let me answer your question as to "why bother". I bother because I like Linux. Games aren't everything, so for the 90 percent of my computing that is not gaming, it's worth it to me to keep my machine Windows free.
Thanks for the Coke all over my computer screen...sheesh.
This is more revolutionary than the mercury-switch controllers. The Atari system controllers were just five switches. One for each of up, down, left, right and one for a fire button. diagonals were achieved by closing two switches. There was not the fine control you ordinarily want with a mouse. A simple mercury switch is only an on/off device. It would not measure degree of tilt.
I can't say definitively that you are wrong, but I don't think the postal service is a greatly profitable industry. I don't think there is a considerable profit margin for waht they mail. AOL ships these things bulk rate which is a reduction from standard mailing. The labor cost to process all these has to eat up a large portion of what they charge. i don't know... I'm not confident is helps the rest of the US population with postal costs. It does keep more postal workers in jobs, however.
I agree with everything you've said, but especially this paragraph. When I was in my early career, I used to say that I would never stoop to kissing up to management. I was wrong. It's called playing politics, and it's absolutely key to keeping a good rapport with they guys deciding on your raises, etc.
"in many cases", you say. That implies to me that some would buy, wouldn't you agree? Many more say they would never buy the product, yet they continue to use it. I believe that many of that group would buy it if they did not have the option to get it free. It's not a 100% loss of profits per copy, but I believe there is a loss.
You may not be stealing the product, but you are stealing profits. Arguing semantics doesn't change reality.
For me, it seems that setting concrete goals is too limiting. I prefer to change with my situation and try to enjoy it. I try to let my mood (and my personal ethics) rule, to some degree.
My greatest current goals are to raise my son to be respectful, outgoing and happy and to be the best husband that I can be to my wife. Being the best husband and father that I can requires changing with the situation. Spending all my time on career goals may make me richer and provide a level of comfort as far as money and posessions, but I may have found out by later in life that my son would have liked me to be around more to play ball rather than be in the office. My wife may have wished I was around more to provide her with emotional support.
Personally, I feel that a person has to be somewhat fluid in the way they handle the their lives. Iguess you could say I feel the journey is more important than the destination.
Having said all that, I suppose I am very stringent with putting my family ahead of everything else, so I guess that being a good husband and father is my stringent goal. All other things have to bend to fit that goal, however.
Everybody measures success in their own way, however...
Yeah, and you can bet some damn kid will push all the buttons on the way up, too.
Simmer down, now... -SNL skit reference, no attempt to simulate the accents used...
Really, though, I thought the comment you are reacting to was an attempt to point out exactly what you are saying. At least that's the way I saw it.
Although there is a thread of bias against large corporations here, I think the real negativity towards AOL tends to be from those who don't like the infusion of the clueless into internet society. It used to be the realm of the geek. Now everyone participates, and the noise to signal ratio has gone way up.
I don't harbor negativity towards AOL for this. Rather, I feel that developers have done their job well when an interface disguises underlying complexities. AOL's interface allows my parents to get online without extensive training
Microsoft, on the other hand, is a different matter for most of us. For me, I dislike Microsoft, not for their monopoly, but for their methods of acheiving it and maintaining it. If you haven't already, read The Halloween Documents. They expose the kind of things that Microsoft does to hurt the Internet, hurt healthy competition and ultimately hurt the consumer.
For me, my enjoyment of Linux has nothing to do with Microsoft. I am a computer hobbyist, and the learning I can to with Linux makes it fun for me. I would have no problem with Microsoft having a monopoly over the commercial market as long as they were doing it ethically. The market should be won by having a better product, not by destroying competition through underhanded and arguably illegal means.
Strange how a little loss of sleep can affect the way I type "Discovery"... (sigh)
I saw a show on Disvoery or TLC about the Ark of the covenant and some speculation that it was actually similar to a Tesla coil.
I found a similar description on a web site.
I can't vouch for the accuracy of the web site, since I'm not very knowledgeable on the topic, but I thought the concept was interesting.
True... Best Buy does carry Linux. I should have been more clear. They do not carry applications for Linux.
You may see Linux listed for $100+, but you don't have to pay for it. It can be downloaded for free or you can legally copy the core disks from a friend. At that, $100 is still less than $300.
XP does not run all software. XP runs all Windows software. It can no more run a Linux binary and than a Linux box can run a Windows application.... oh, wait a minute... there are emulators such as WINE that do allow Windows apps to run under Linux. Score one more for Linux.
There are native Linux apps for every purpose that I need. I run StarOffice currently for word processing, spreadsheets, etc. Konqueror works great as my web browser. I can scan, burn CD's, watch DVD's, play games, listen to my MP3's, etc. What am I not able to do that you can do under Windows.
The only places where I see Linux having a disadvantage is in the commercial software market. The software is not on the shelves of your local Best Buy.
Some people consider maintenance/configuration to be too hard under Linux. I would argue that yes, it takes more work up front, but once you've done that work you can rest easy. With Windows, I'm always wondering when the next lock-up will happen.
I believe that what you've said matches peoples' perceptions. But in this case, perception is not reality.
It was early nineties... I mentioned that it was eight or nine years ago... might have been more. Yes, I likely did waste my money. My priorities were different back then, before family and kids, etc. I
You know, it was about 8 or 9 years ago when people were saying "why do you need that much space?" regarding the 450MB hard drive in my very sexy 486DX2 machine (why do you need one that is that fast?) with a whopping 2MB of memory.
As more capacity becomes available, developers can build things that were previously not practical because of previous limitations. You may not need the capacity with your existing stuff, but the new stuff will likely take advantage of the large drive.