Because to provide all the options in the default install would bloat firefox (download size, memory usage, startup, etc). This way you get the best of all possible worlds - everybody can have all the features they like without having to download the features other people want but they don't. How many people really want a browser to be able to translate a web page into "Swedish Chef"? With the addon system, those that want it can have it without affecting the rest of us.
Technically incorrect. You don't have to demonstrate a good reason to own a shotgun, the police have to demonstrate a good reason not to let you (criminal record, nutcase, etc). However it is true that you must prove you can store it in a secure manner - not an unreasonable requirement.
Yeah it's true, it's a pity these bugs were not already detected . . . like before they were detected . . . already.
that they were not already worked on
Yeah it's true, why didn't they work on them before . . . like before they were detected . . . already.
or that they were even there
Yeah it's true, what did they think they were doing putting bugs in to begin with . . . like everybody knows not to write bugs into software . . . duh!
It's not a contract it's an "End User Licence Agreement", and even if it was a contract - nobody's allowed to force you to agree to a contract. There already exists a contract at the point where you pay money and recieve a computer - if the computer then doesn't work as advertised the company that sold it to you is in breach (aside from any consumer legislation which may be relevant) - hence the offer of a refund if you do not agree to the EULA. Personally I think it's still questionable but Microsoft resellers seem to think this excuses them from selling goods which don't work properly (if you refuse the EULA - as is your right).
life would be different on a planet with entirely different conditions
But it's almost a pre-requisite that there must be a liquid medium available for life to exist. Chemicals in a solid can't move around enough to go through the complexity of reactions and in a gas they're too far apart.
Also the liquid almost has to be water in order to dissolve the wide variety of chemicals you need (although you could argue that organic solvents would work if life was mostly carbon based).
You also need compounds which can form large and varied molecules in order to carry enough information for a genome. Some people have suggested silicon based compounds could form large enough (and varied enough) molecules but I doubt it personally, which leaves carbon molecules as the only realistic basis for life.
We end up with carbon based life forms existing only where liquid water is available and consequently no life on mars - as experiment after experiment has found.
NASA pushes life on Mars as a possibility because it's a justification for their continued existence and their proposed (pointless) manned trips there.
Admittedly it's difficult to prove a negative and there the faint possiblity of some weird "energy based" lifeform or something like that but, in practice, (and unless some unexpected evidence shows up) Occam's Razor tells us there is no life on Mars. It's disappointing but try to be logical about it.
Ganymede (liquid water) and Titan (liquid hydrocarbons) are better bets.
Did it come with an End User Licence Agreement which stated that if you did not agree to the licence you could return it for a refund? If so, then yes - you can return the drive for a refund. If no, then probably not.
Whilst that may be true in the medical field, predicting long term trends with any accuracy requires understanding of all significant factors likely to be involved (for example a doctor might be a lot less confident with such a prediction in the middle of a major epidemic).
Factors affecting global warming are very poorly understood: oceanic currents and their effect on atmospheric temperature, the influence of Himalayan erosion on CO2 concentrations, how the Rocky Mountain range distorts jet streams over America, why El Nino occurs some years and not others . . . and the list goes on.
It's highly questionable how anybody can make long term climate predictions with any degree of accuracy given the current lack of understanding of how the planet's climate reacts to perturbation. Which is why it's not unreasonable to demand that models correctly predict *future* changes which can be confirmed before the model is accepted rather than just matching previously existing data - as the GP pointed out, fitting a model to an existing curve is relatively trivial by comparison and thus a poor guide to a models applicability to the future.
Well we could apply for extradition, it's just such a trivial offence that nobody would bother - and for similar reasons a Canadian court would probably tell anybody who tried to get lost.
But all this is a storm in a teacup and the head of the NUT (National Union of Teachers) ain't exactly a mover and shaker in political circles.
What's upset them isn't actually this video so much as the idea that if they behave like dicks in the classroom there's always a chance some little scrote with a camera-phone will post their performance on YouTube.
It's the same reason cops love surveillance cameras until you start filming them . . . nobody's behaviour is 100% beyond criticism.
I can only go by what the guy said, you might understand that he meant something different but in his own words:
But you can't argue that Windows is expensive when it's a cost incorporated into 99.9% of consumer PC's.
Which is a idiotic statement for the reason I pointed out.
I'm surprised if you can tell me with any certainty what a company like Dell or Sony is paying Microsoft per copy for windows. Price for an OEM copy of windows generally varies from around $100 to $170. Of course it's up to the individual to decide if that's expensive but if you don't know how much you're paying (via some third party) doesn't necessarily make it inexpensive.
Neither does the fact that it's difficult to buy a computer without windows make it any cheaper.
Just because the consumer can't find out what proportion of the price of a new PC is for the MS software doesn't automatically imply that it's not expensive. What a silly suggestion.
The standard is a balance of the probabilities. That is, whatever the jury thinks most likely happened
This point has been made a lot in these comments and in theory it's absolutely right, but (as ever) theory and practice are different environments. Given a sympathetic jury (not an unlikely occurence) and the mis-matched resources of the plaintiff and defendant, substantial doubt might well be enough to tip the scales in many jurors minds.
There's that word again: "Stealing". How many times have I seen that word used on Slashdot to justify some privilege an individual feels entitled too, used for its emotional connotations when the writer knows full well that what he's discussing is not theft.
Scientific studies have proven that bacon, mouldy cheese and lager make you immune to sub-thermal interactions . . . sheesh, some people don't know nothin'
Fortunately I have been blessed with a mind of my own and do not require instruction on the content or manner of any statements I chose to make. If you wish to slavishly follow someone elses idea of what is appropriate in a discussion involving Linux that is entirely your perogative - I do not feel any such obligation.
Any interaction for which all of the molecules rotate in the same direction is not a thermal interaction
Why not - rotational energy *is* themal energy.
the thermodynamic limit
How is the thermodynamic limit relevant?
you can't even use the language of "heat" to describe the interaction at this scale
I can use the language of heat to describe interactions from the level of individual particles to the level of supermassive black holes, what scale is this at?
lipid bilayers are polar molecules which are aligned
Actually close to true - they are *roughly* aligned.
the effects of such rotations on the function of lipid bilayers is very poorly understood
At this level of heating it's quite well understood - there is zero effect.
It seems quite naive for the people in this forum to be dismissing the concerns of those parents as uneducated and unscientific
No it's the parents who are naive and their concerns *are* uneducated and unscientific.
There are serious unanswered scientific questions about the interactions and effects
There are serious unanswered scientific questions about almost everything.
you can't just wish or scoff them away
I wouldn't try to scoff away a serious unanswered scientific question - perhaps you can find one.
You try to sound like somebody using a scientific approach to the problem, but you just use "scientific " words in meaningless combinations.
Have you ever tried turning on a radio, there's hundreds of stations - not many people seem to realise the danger but even the sun is producing radio waves, my god we're surrounded by wireless radiation - why isn't the government doing something, won't somebody think of the children!
Reminds me of the C of E Bishop who was asked what basic beliefs a person really needed to have if they wanted to become an ordained priest within the C of E. The questioner didn't find the answer very informative so he tried to start from a more concrete position: would one need to believe in God? The Bishop's reply: "That's a very good question."
Slashdot Mirror
Generalisation is only flawed thinking when applied to individuals.
Because to provide all the options in the default install would bloat firefox (download size, memory usage, startup, etc). This way you get the best of all possible worlds - everybody can have all the features they like without having to download the features other people want but they don't. How many people really want a browser to be able to translate a web page into "Swedish Chef"? With the addon system, those that want it can have it without affecting the rest of us.
Technically incorrect. You don't have to demonstrate a good reason to own a shotgun, the police have to demonstrate a good reason not to let you (criminal record, nutcase, etc). However it is true that you must prove you can store it in a secure manner - not an unreasonable requirement.
Don't knock the Belgians - they're the only other country in the world that makes decent beer.
it's bad that they were not already detected
Yeah it's true, it's a pity these bugs were not already detected . . . like before they were detected . . . already.
that they were not already worked on
Yeah it's true, why didn't they work on them before . . . like before they were detected . . . already.
or that they were even there
Yeah it's true, what did they think they were doing putting bugs in to begin with . . . like everybody knows not to write bugs into software . . . duh!
There already is a petition in support of ID cards: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/idcard/
Currently 25 signatures.
If I was a dog I wouldn't eat the grass like ones either.
It's not a contract it's an "End User Licence Agreement", and even if it was a contract - nobody's allowed to force you to agree to a contract. There already exists a contract at the point where you pay money and recieve a computer - if the computer then doesn't work as advertised the company that sold it to you is in breach (aside from any consumer legislation which may be relevant) - hence the offer of a refund if you do not agree to the EULA. Personally I think it's still questionable but Microsoft resellers seem to think this excuses them from selling goods which don't work properly (if you refuse the EULA - as is your right).
life would be different on a planet with entirely different conditions
But it's almost a pre-requisite that there must be a liquid medium available for life to exist. Chemicals in a solid can't move around enough to go through the complexity of reactions and in a gas they're too far apart.
Also the liquid almost has to be water in order to dissolve the wide variety of chemicals you need (although you could argue that organic solvents would work if life was mostly carbon based).
You also need compounds which can form large and varied molecules in order to carry enough information for a genome. Some people have suggested silicon based compounds could form large enough (and varied enough) molecules but I doubt it personally, which leaves carbon molecules as the only realistic basis for life.
We end up with carbon based life forms existing only where liquid water is available and consequently no life on mars - as experiment after experiment has found.
NASA pushes life on Mars as a possibility because it's a justification for their continued existence and their proposed (pointless) manned trips there.
Admittedly it's difficult to prove a negative and there the faint possiblity of some weird "energy based" lifeform or something like that but, in practice, (and unless some unexpected evidence shows up) Occam's Razor tells us there is no life on Mars. It's disappointing but try to be logical about it.
Ganymede (liquid water) and Titan (liquid hydrocarbons) are better bets.
I worked in direct contact with the general public for many years, an experience which resulted in my two rules of customer service:
Rule 1. The customer is always right.
Rule 2. People who don't want to pay aren't customers.
Can I get a refund on that?
Did it come with an End User Licence Agreement which stated that if you did not agree to the licence you could return it for a refund? If so, then yes - you can return the drive for a refund. If no, then probably not.
Whilst that may be true in the medical field, predicting long term trends with any accuracy requires understanding of all significant factors likely to be involved (for example a doctor might be a lot less confident with such a prediction in the middle of a major epidemic).
Factors affecting global warming are very poorly understood: oceanic currents and their effect on atmospheric temperature, the influence of Himalayan erosion on CO2 concentrations, how the Rocky Mountain range distorts jet streams over America, why El Nino occurs some years and not others . . . and the list goes on.
It's highly questionable how anybody can make long term climate predictions with any degree of accuracy given the current lack of understanding of how the planet's climate reacts to perturbation. Which is why it's not unreasonable to demand that models correctly predict *future* changes which can be confirmed before the model is accepted rather than just matching previously existing data - as the GP pointed out, fitting a model to an existing curve is relatively trivial by comparison and thus a poor guide to a models applicability to the future.
Well we could apply for extradition, it's just such a trivial offence that nobody would bother - and for similar reasons a Canadian court would probably tell anybody who tried to get lost.
But all this is a storm in a teacup and the head of the NUT (National Union of Teachers) ain't exactly a mover and shaker in political circles.
What's upset them isn't actually this video so much as the idea that if they behave like dicks in the classroom there's always a chance some little scrote with a camera-phone will post their performance on YouTube.
It's the same reason cops love surveillance cameras until you start filming them . . . nobody's behaviour is 100% beyond criticism.
I can only go by what the guy said, you might understand that he meant something different but in his own words:
But you can't argue that Windows is expensive when it's a cost incorporated into 99.9% of consumer PC's.
Which is a idiotic statement for the reason I pointed out.
I'm surprised if you can tell me with any certainty what a company like Dell or Sony is paying Microsoft per copy for windows. Price for an OEM copy of windows generally varies from around $100 to $170. Of course it's up to the individual to decide if that's expensive but if you don't know how much you're paying (via some third party) doesn't necessarily make it inexpensive.
Neither does the fact that it's difficult to buy a computer without windows make it any cheaper.
Just because the consumer can't find out what proportion of the price of a new PC is for the MS software doesn't automatically imply that it's not expensive. What a silly suggestion.
The standard is a balance of the probabilities. That is, whatever the jury thinks most likely happened
This point has been made a lot in these comments and in theory it's absolutely right, but (as ever) theory and practice are different environments. Given a sympathetic jury (not an unlikely occurence) and the mis-matched resources of the plaintiff and defendant, substantial doubt might well be enough to tip the scales in many jurors minds.
probably actively engaged in stealing
There's that word again: "Stealing". How many times have I seen that word used on Slashdot to justify some privilege an individual feels entitled too, used for its emotional connotations when the writer knows full well that what he's discussing is not theft.
Weasel words from human vermin.
Slashdot is not a typical cross section of the general public - most people are unlikely to buy a data cable or flasher for their mobile phone.
Scientific studies have proven that bacon, mouldy cheese and lager make you immune to sub-thermal interactions . . . sheesh, some people don't know nothin'
Fortunately I have been blessed with a mind of my own and do not require instruction on the content or manner of any statements I chose to make. If you wish to slavishly follow someone elses idea of what is appropriate in a discussion involving Linux that is entirely your perogative - I do not feel any such obligation.
On many linux distros you'd need:
echo "user:domain:iteration:mastersecret" | md5sum
sub-thermal interactions
What's one of them then?
Any interaction for which all of the molecules rotate in the same direction is not a thermal interaction
Why not - rotational energy *is* themal energy.
the thermodynamic limit
How is the thermodynamic limit relevant?
you can't even use the language of "heat" to describe the interaction at this scale
I can use the language of heat to describe interactions from the level of individual particles to the level of supermassive black holes, what scale is this at?
lipid bilayers are polar molecules which are aligned
Actually close to true - they are *roughly* aligned.
the effects of such rotations on the function of lipid bilayers is very poorly understood
At this level of heating it's quite well understood - there is zero effect.
It seems quite naive for the people in this forum to be dismissing the concerns of those parents as uneducated and unscientific
No it's the parents who are naive and their concerns *are* uneducated and unscientific.
There are serious unanswered scientific questions about the interactions and effects
There are serious unanswered scientific questions about almost everything.
you can't just wish or scoff them away
I wouldn't try to scoff away a serious unanswered scientific question - perhaps you can find one.
You try to sound like somebody using a scientific approach to the problem, but you just use "scientific " words in meaningless combinations.
Have you ever tried turning on a radio, there's hundreds of stations - not many people seem to realise the danger but even the sun is producing radio waves, my god we're surrounded by wireless radiation - why isn't the government doing something, won't somebody think of the children!
Most Christians don't believe in God, they believe in -belief- in God
Well I can't agree with the first part, but quite apart from that - I really don't understand the distinction.
Not exactly fundamentalists no.
Reminds me of the C of E Bishop who was asked what basic beliefs a person really needed to have if they wanted to become an ordained priest within the C of E. The questioner didn't find the answer very informative so he tried to start from a more concrete position: would one need to believe in God? The Bishop's reply: "That's a very good question."