This is a great example of why we need a patent system, though not necessarily the one we have. Industrious people pour thousands of hours of into getting something to work, and I think it is important that society protect their investment for a limited amount of time.
My main worry is that I'll switch, drink the Apple kool-aid, then wake up one morning and think "The novelty of the pretty eye-candy has worn off now. What do I have that I would not have with GNU/Linux with (say) KDE?"
I've used KDE on my desktop for years, and I recently bought an iBook. Linux w/ KDE is pretty good, but I find myself tweaking a lot of settings to get it to work in a way that I like. Recent KDE releases have gone a long way towards sane defaults, however. The general feeling is that there is a lot of functionality, so much in fact that the interface seems to lack organization. There is also a feeling of excitement because the software is changing so rapidly.
With OSX things are somewhat opposite. There is a very strong feeling of organization, and ALL the apps are polished. There is occassionally a lack of functionality. You will miss fish:// from KDE. However, if your work consists of running applications as opposed to messing around with the OS, you will find that OSX is pleasant to use. It is capable and consistent, and it stays out of your way.
Contrast this with Windows XP. The OS lacks organization and functionality. It actually gets slower as you install more and more programs! Like Linux, things randomly break. Like OSX, you may have no hope of diagnosing or fixing strange problems with the OS. However, unlike OSX, strange problems actually happen - frequently - and Apple isn't there to fix them. You are literally paying money to Microsoft to be left to the hounds. I can tolerate being left to the hounds with Linux - it's free. And Apple may charge lots of money, but they won't leave you to the hounds. Windows is a vapid wasteland of destitute users. On the other hand, it has all the games.
This is one time when the argument about Windows being a bigger target really applies. The rate of infection is proportional to the number of vulnerable hosts.
If I use Freenet to download a movie, will I also be hosting child porn? With Bittorrent and eDonkey, I have a choice of what content I distribute.
Freenet works precisely because the people who are hosting content can not find out what that content is, and therefore (presumably) can not be held responsible for it. You need this to have a truly anonymous network, which is what Freenet is trying to be. The Freenet FAQ is being honest with you. If you can't tolerate the possibility (however remote) of hosting child porn or whatever, then you shouldn't run a Freenet node.
For what it's worth, if you do run a node you can always publish lots of non-child porn material to decrease the probability that your node (and all the other nodes as well) are hosting child porn. Who knows, maybe if you publish lots of good stuff more non-pedophiles will be attracted to Freenet. I for one was happy to find a bunch of classical music on Freenet when I first checked it out. The network really is whatever you want to make it.
On the subject of animal rights, what about rights for non-domesticated animals ? We should be granting those right now. The vast majority of animals which are eventually eaten live horrible, disgusting lives. We sit around arguing over rights for a hypothetical computer with undetermined intellect, while real animals with real intellects are live their entire lives jammed in cramped little pens and cages. It is a great horror of our time, and one day we will regret our barbarism and selfishness.
I want reviews for hardware I've already bought for my company. They should say things like "this hardware is great" and "IT people who bought this deserve a promotion". Also, please try to make the articles fit on one page.
Slashdot Mirror
The irony is killing me.
Sounds like an IBM commercial.
Yes, but this SkyNet will just ramble on and on about frost pist and old people from Korea.
Hey thanks for the tip!
WARNING: Do not point laser into remaining good eye.
Montana, late 90's. It was the safest period ever on the roads there.
Because all the bad drivers were killed already ?
I think you misspelled hockey :)
This is a great example of why we need a patent system, though not necessarily the one we have. Industrious people pour thousands of hours of into getting something to work, and I think it is important that society protect their investment for a limited amount of time.
My main worry is that I'll switch, drink the Apple kool-aid, then wake up one morning and think "The novelty of the pretty eye-candy has worn off now. What do I have that I would not have with GNU/Linux with (say) KDE?"
I've used KDE on my desktop for years, and I recently bought an iBook. Linux w/ KDE is pretty good, but I find myself tweaking a lot of settings to get it to work in a way that I like. Recent KDE releases have gone a long way towards sane defaults, however. The general feeling is that there is a lot of functionality, so much in fact that the interface seems to lack organization. There is also a feeling of excitement because the software is changing so rapidly.
With OSX things are somewhat opposite. There is a very strong feeling of organization, and ALL the apps are polished. There is occassionally a lack of functionality. You will miss fish:// from KDE. However, if your work consists of running applications as opposed to messing around with the OS, you will find that OSX is pleasant to use. It is capable and consistent, and it stays out of your way.
Contrast this with Windows XP. The OS lacks organization and functionality. It actually gets slower as you install more and more programs! Like Linux, things randomly break. Like OSX, you may have no hope of diagnosing or fixing strange problems with the OS. However, unlike OSX, strange problems actually happen - frequently - and Apple isn't there to fix them. You are literally paying money to Microsoft to be left to the hounds. I can tolerate being left to the hounds with Linux - it's free. And Apple may charge lots of money, but they won't leave you to the hounds. Windows is a vapid wasteland of destitute users. On the other hand, it has all the games.
Ok, here's what I have access to.
MHz Sec CPU
2800 1.33 P4 Xeon
1991 1.8 Opteron 246
1400 3.3 Athlon Thunderbird
1000 4.6 iBook G4
1000 9.3 iBook G4 (Reduced CPU)
800 5.8 PowerMac G4
700 6.0 Pentium III Cascades
250 13 MIPS R10000 (SGI Origin?)
195 20 MIPS R10000 (SGI O2)
133 65 Pentium 133 (LONG LIVE SLACKWARE!)
I put Gentoo on my 486 DX 50 w/ 8MB of RAM. It actually worked pretty good as a terminal. My wife won't let me keep it :(
Where did all the demoscene coders go ? Did they all go out and get jobs ? Honestly, those guys could have the iPod playing .ogms with subs.
He was listing open ones :)
This is one time when the argument about Windows being a bigger target really applies. The rate of infection is proportional to the number of vulnerable hosts.
It will be back, and it will be run by BayTSP :)
If I use Freenet to download a movie, will I also be hosting child porn? With Bittorrent and eDonkey, I have a choice of what content I distribute.
Freenet works precisely because the people who are hosting content can not find out what that content is, and therefore (presumably) can not be held responsible for it. You need this to have a truly anonymous network, which is what Freenet is trying to be. The Freenet FAQ is being honest with you. If you can't tolerate the possibility (however remote) of hosting child porn or whatever, then you shouldn't run a Freenet node.
For what it's worth, if you do run a node you can always publish lots of non-child porn material to decrease the probability that your node (and all the other nodes as well) are hosting child porn. Who knows, maybe if you publish lots of good stuff more non-pedophiles will be attracted to Freenet. I for one was happy to find a bunch of classical music on Freenet when I first checked it out. The network really is whatever you want to make it.
The sites are slow because they run a database of torrent files in the background. Also, their html is full of crap and they serve ads.
On the subject of animal rights, what about rights for non-domesticated animals ? We should be granting those right now. The vast majority of animals which are eventually eaten live horrible, disgusting lives. We sit around arguing over rights for a hypothetical computer with undetermined intellect, while real animals with real intellects are live their entire lives jammed in cramped little pens and cages. It is a great horror of our time, and one day we will regret our barbarism and selfishness.
It's just Michael. He's the biggest troll of all.
It is a huge disadvantage for "grunt" computations. However, interpreted code is a perfect match for most high-level algebraic routines.
OS/2 had drivers ?! Not in 2.0 :)
Really ? Tell me, do you almost get hit by a car at every intersection ? Do you ever wonder why ?
I want reviews for hardware I've already bought for my company. They should say things like "this hardware is great" and "IT people who bought this deserve a promotion". Also, please try to make the articles fit on one page.
How is that offtopic ? It's #84 !
The digital library exists. But to get access you have to go to the paper library.
Why should that be the case ?