"Yeah, this seems bogus. Windows XP looks like it supports about 50 languages, while Vista seems to double that. Besides, I would hardly call Linux's support for Welsh "comprehensive". It's not like they translated all the man pages, HOWTOs, and included programs into Welsh."
You too are missing the point. In order to use a localised version of Windows XP, you have to purchase a new copy of it, or you can purchase the Multilingual User Interface Pack to support languages which Windows XP is not directly available in, provided you're using XP professional and not home edition.
In KDE/Gnome, you can switch languages pretty much on the fly. It is true that not all documentation is available in all languages, but you can use the UI in your own language, not just use your own language in the UI. I know that OS X has the same kind of support for some languages, but can you actually use OS X in Irish or Welsh?
"I believe this to be false, and I am assuming it is coming from someone who has never used OS X. I just looked in System Preferences, and they are indeed there under International (you need to look under its native name, e.g. "Cymraeg" for Welsh -- it's hidden under the "Edit" button). OS X was built with Unicode in mind."
It is not about font support or Unicode, although both are part of the solution, but about the ability to switch the language of the entire system. By changing a setting, KDE speaks Irish or Welsh to me, after recently speaking Swedish. (in the menus, dialogs and stuff.) The same is true of Gnome. Searching for an Irish or Welsh version of OS X gives me no helpful results.
"That being said, I would like you to stop generalizing about Americans."
I did not mean to. Sorry about that! I should've said "some of it's citizens". Specifically, it's a phrase used in abundance in American films and TV shows.
"There is nothing wrong with having pride in your country. I love this country. I know it has made mistakes, pushed people's buttons, and done things that aren't right. That doesn't mean that I'm going to just lose pride in my homeland and not try to make it a better place."
I suppose patriotism is ok, when taken in moderation. It is especially dangerous when it makes you think you're country is perfect and that there is no room for improvement. (This is true of all countries.) The patriotism that you represent is obviously a healthier one. I am aware that there are millions more like you in the US and that the flag-waving "love it or leave it - criticism is treason"-kind of idiots are but a minority.
"I am a citizen (unfortunately) of the US, and I also don't like the phrase "leader of the free world" but you lose credit with simple grammatical error such as"
Bah! Two words I wrote switched places. I admit it was a typing error from my part. So what? It should be pretty clear, even for you, that I know how that sentence should have been constructed. You, OTOH, could improve your use of punctuation and you missed an indefinite article. As a grammar nazi, you do wisely by staying anonymous. (No, English is not my first language.)
"In other words, your SMTP server would have a rule that says a host must connect on IP address 1 first, then connect to IP address 2 within a certain time period (say, an hour)."
You missed my point, which is: what happens when the machine at address 1 is down and does not record any connection attempts? It does not receive any e-mail and neither does the machine at address 2, because it does not see any attempts at address 1.
"If we, the US, leader of the free world cannot even follow our own constitution... [snip]"
Please, stop using that phrase! First of all, even if you view the US as part of the free world, despite recent developments (like this one, which hasn't happened yet), the US does not lead countries that are free, only countries which allow themselves to be enslaved by US foreign policy. I, for one, do not follow US leadership, nor does my country, nor does the union of free countries, which my country is member of!
Furthermore, I no of know country that admits to following US leadership.
"Leader of the free world" is an epithet that the US (rather, it's citizens) has imposed on itself without consent of the free world, and thus it is an oxymoron in the highest degree.
"I was reading the article, and suddenly port knocking came to mind. It wouldn't be a far stretch to modify an SMTP server to only reject connections on the lower priority IP address if the source had not tried to first connect to the higher priority IP address."
Bzzzzzt.... So what happens when your primary MX goes down for real, which is when your secondary MX should be receiving mail, because your primary is unavailable? No email is received what-so-ever, and your boss will have your head on a plate.
Re:Less of the kitchen sink would make KDE better
on
A Sneak Preview of KDE 4
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· Score: 4, Insightful
"I wish they'd follow GNOME or Firefox and realise that overloading the senses with tabs, buttons and checkboxes does not make for a pleasant desktop experience."
Hear hear!
You're so right! I wish the KDE team would realise that a pleasant desktop experience involves editing.gtkrc-2.0 by hand and adding stuff like
"I always found it funny that the standard-issue M16s jammed semi-frequently, while the AK-47s that you can pick up from enemies never jammed"
Well, have you ever used an M16, notorious for it's tendency to jam, or an AK-47, famous for it's reliability? While the 5.56mm ammo of the M16 offers several advantages over the 7.62mm ammo of the AK-47, when it comes to reliability, the AK-47 wins hands down.
Re:Perhaps HIV? - Nitpicking the Nitpicker
on
AIDS Can Fight AIDS
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· Score: 4, Informative
There is no such thing as an "AIDS" virus, per say... I think you mean to say that they used a modified HIV virus. AIDS is the resulting symptom that people with HIV (or certain other diseases) might develop.
There is no such thing as an "HIV virus", per se. There is, however a "Human Immunodeficiency Virus", which is shortened to HIV, or - if you will - " the HI-virus".
"If you are a hardcore liberal, then you probably are more likely to believe Osama Bin Laden's propaganda than anything Donald Rumseld says, and if you are of the neo-con flavor, then anything Donald Rumsfeld or George Bush or any of the generals say is gospel to you."
Say what? Why on earth would a "hardcore liberal" believe anythíng Bin Laden says, other than facts that might be corraborated by anouther source? Bin Ladens ideals are pretty fucking far from the ideals of a "hardcore liberal".
"Finland, the #1 country, actually has strong government-controlled media (with government radio making up 61% of listening time)."
(Speaking as a Finn.) Government-funded: yes. Government-controlled: no! Finnish law clearly states that government should not meddle in the affairs of YLE, the national broadcasting company, and governemnt has no power of censorship. While I normally tune in to YLE, I also follow it's private competitors on TV, which aren't far behind in the ratings and also offer top-notch reporting. So does the majority of Finns.
What I fail to understand is why some people seem to think that a private company, with economical interests and investors in eg. the oil business and arms trade, would necessarily offer more reliable and impartial news than a publically funded company. Why would corporations somehow be more honest and unselfish than governments. I mean, sure, don't trust the government blindly, but why should you trust a corporation blindly? Perhaps you'd like your news a bit more Fair and Balanced?
Quite funny, but Bin Laden would never speak of "the capitalist pig masses" of the US. He hates communism as much as the most hardline republican in the US, if not more. He is a religious fanatic, while communism is usually coupled with the idea of a secular state. And, oh yeah, he actually fought the Soviet Union.
>"If you actually read the linked patent, it isn't a patent on conjugating words. It's a patent on automatically providing all of the different possible conjugation forms of any verb on the fly,"
Yes, that is true, but that doesn't make it any less straightforward and simple.
>"which is something I, for one, haven't seen before and think could be pretty useful..."
...which most definitely does not mean that such a thing does not exist.
I, for one, have created a simple Perl-module which conjugates a given Latin verb in all tenses and forms. Let me tell you: conjugating a verb "on the fly" is trivial. Exceptions to every rule do, however, mess things up a little, but the exceptions themselves build up very simple and trivial rules.
"Israel has the right to defend itself. Frankly, they've shown incredible restraint considering they've been under attack incessantly since they were formed"
What Israel is doing right now has nothing at all to do with self defence. The civilians of Lebanon pose no threat what-so-ever to either Israel or it's citizens. Two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped by Hezbollah, an independent organisation that does not take orders from anybody, especially not from the Lebanese people being murdered by the hundreds right now and not from the Lebanese government.
Israel is bombing Lebanon "in order to save Israeli lives". Why are Israeli lives inherently more worth than Lebanese lives? Why should we accept that Israel is murdering innocent people just to increase it's lebensraum? And what "restraint" are you talking about? That they haven't been putting Arabs in gas chambers, yet? At this pace, they soon will!
"With an attitude like this, the fact that this chap's leaving, is actually a good news for the future of PHP. No open source project can afford devleopers with such bloated egos. And especially at the top, it's better to have less hot-headed souls, talking in a decent, humane manner."
Bah! You're reading too much into his words. As I see it, what he's trying to say is that the reasons to him leaving are personal, but obvious for some poeple involved. Also, he does not want to start pointing fingers and does not feel he owes anybody an explanation. Perhaps you see this as behaving like a primadonna, but hardly hot-headed behaviour. He doesn't insult anybody in his post, although he obviously wants to and he refrains from whining about whatever he's unhappy about.
"In this case, if you under 18 years of age, I recommend that you buy a box of silver bullets or just plain vanilla lead bullets. Put the bullets into your revolver. Hide the revolver in your jacket. Then, walk into your boss' office. Fire away. You will not be tried as an adult since you are not a legal adult. Better yet, after you reach the age of 18, your criminal record will be wiped clean."
You don't live in the US, do you? In the US, persons under the age of 18 are tried, convicted and executed on a regular basis. Well actually, they aren't being executed until later on in life (nowadays), since the appeals process does take some time.
"Has anybody thought of the mice? Aren't we playing GOD with them?"
If you can name a deity that creates artificial sperm and inseminates animals with it, then yes. Otherwise, no.
"Shouldn't they have a right to live and roam free and not be subject to those humans obsessed with fertilizing them? Disgusting and definitely unethical."
Shouldn't cows, chicken, pigs, sheep etc. etc. have the right to roam free an not be subject to those humans obsessed with eating them? I don't know, really... I'm not a vegan. Perhaps you are? Then you probably think that all these animals should have these rights.
Disgust is in the eye of the beholder, but if you claim this to be unethical then you must be against all experiments involving lab rats. Since such experiments have proven successful in the battle against cancer and other ailments, I'm not able to agree with you.
"If students discover that they are no longer threatened by virus/trojan/spyware every time they open an email, that's a really big deal."
Yes, Microsoft is indeed trusted by both experts and non-experts alike as the market-leading provider of malware-safe software. Sigh! If only more people would use IE and Outlook every known virus would have been halted dead in its tracks.
Wrong! Most students will not have an opinion until they experience it. Many will still not have an opinion after that.
"Most dont know or want to know what pop/smtp/imap are"
True, but they will find out the hard way that their e-mail service is lacking something that they can't name. At the latest, they will do so when they try to read their e-mail in some webcafé or similar place that only has a non-IE browser. They will also notice that a lot of their friends have a choice of mail clients, whereas they do not.
When I built an e-mail system for a business school, I was positively surprised by the amount of people who were actually knowledgable far beyond my expectations and they were really opinionated. Freedom of choice matters even among non-CS students. The CS students will of course be outraged and disgusted.
I think a remarkable amount of students will rely on gmail for their e-email.
"Anyway, the old "new" constitution is dead in the water right now thanks to French and Dutch voters."
Well, yes and no. It's not completely dead yet. We still have the "Good Doggie!"-countries like Finland that are urging the ratification of said constitution, without letting the voters decide. Whereas some countries, like Germany, have come with a wise proposition to only include the most essential rights in the constitution, the government of Finland wants to hear none of it.
I love this country, we follow every EU directive, even the more draconian ones, to the letter, only more so, but when it comes to state monopolies, which are not very popular in the EU, we fight to the death for our rights to uphold them. The reason? We (our government) always need to take the course which is least popular among the Finnish population.
For crying out loud!!! This guy points out that American freedom of speech is going through dire straits. And what do Slashdot moderators do? Mod him down, ie. silence him. That exactly proves how right he is. Do you really think that you somehow improve freedom of speech by silencing the voices pointing out that your first amendment rights are in deep trouble???
Slashdot Mirror
"Yeah, this seems bogus. Windows XP looks like it supports about 50 languages, while Vista seems to double that. Besides, I would hardly call Linux's support for Welsh "comprehensive". It's not like they translated all the man pages, HOWTOs, and included programs into Welsh."
You too are missing the point. In order to use a localised version of Windows XP, you have to purchase a new copy of it, or you can purchase the Multilingual User Interface Pack to support languages which Windows XP is not directly available in, provided you're using XP professional and not home edition.
In KDE/Gnome, you can switch languages pretty much on the fly. It is true that not all documentation is available in all languages, but you can use the UI in your own language, not just use your own language in the UI. I know that OS X has the same kind of support for some languages, but can you actually use OS X in Irish or Welsh?
"I believe this to be false, and I am assuming it is coming from someone who has never used OS X. I just looked in System Preferences, and they are indeed there under International (you need to look under its native name, e.g. "Cymraeg" for Welsh -- it's hidden under the "Edit" button). OS X was built with Unicode in mind."
It is not about font support or Unicode, although both are part of the solution, but about the ability to switch the language of the entire system. By changing a setting, KDE speaks Irish or Welsh to me, after recently speaking Swedish. (in the menus, dialogs and stuff.) The same is true of Gnome. Searching for an Irish or Welsh version of OS X gives me no helpful results.
"That being said, I would like you to stop generalizing about Americans."
I did not mean to. Sorry about that! I should've said "some of it's citizens". Specifically, it's a phrase used in abundance in American films and TV shows.
"There is nothing wrong with having pride in your country. I love this country. I know it has made mistakes, pushed people's buttons, and done things that aren't right. That doesn't mean that I'm going to just lose pride in my homeland and not try to make it a better place."
I suppose patriotism is ok, when taken in moderation. It is especially dangerous when it makes you think you're country is perfect and that there is no room for improvement. (This is true of all countries.) The patriotism that you represent is obviously a healthier one. I am aware that there are millions more like you in the US and that the flag-waving "love it or leave it - criticism is treason"-kind of idiots are but a minority.
"I am a citizen (unfortunately) of the US, and I also don't like the phrase "leader of the free world" but you lose credit with simple grammatical error such as"
Bah! Two words I wrote switched places. I admit it was a typing error from my part. So what? It should be pretty clear, even for you, that I know how that sentence should have been constructed. You, OTOH, could improve your use of punctuation and you missed an indefinite article. As a grammar nazi, you do wisely by staying anonymous. (No, English is not my first language.)
"In other words, your SMTP server would have a rule that says a host must connect on IP address 1 first, then connect to IP address 2 within a certain time period (say, an hour)."
You missed my point, which is: what happens when the machine at address 1 is down and does not record any connection attempts? It does not receive any e-mail and neither does the machine at address 2, because it does not see any attempts at address 1.
"If we, the US, leader of the free world cannot even follow our own constitution... [snip]"
Please, stop using that phrase! First of all, even if you view the US as part of the free world, despite recent developments (like this one, which hasn't happened yet), the US does not lead countries that are free, only countries which allow themselves to be enslaved by US foreign policy. I, for one, do not follow US leadership, nor does my country, nor does the union of free countries, which my country is member of!
Furthermore, I no of know country that admits to following US leadership.
"Leader of the free world" is an epithet that the US (rather, it's citizens) has imposed on itself without consent of the free world, and thus it is an oxymoron in the highest degree.
"I was reading the article, and suddenly port knocking came to mind. It wouldn't be a far stretch to modify an SMTP server to only reject connections on the lower priority IP address if the source had not tried to first connect to the higher priority IP address."
Bzzzzzt.... So what happens when your primary MX goes down for real, which is when your secondary MX should be receiving mail, because your primary is unavailable? No email is received what-so-ever, and your boss will have your head on a plate.
Hear hear!
You're so right! I wish the KDE team would realise that a pleasant desktop experience involves editing
"I always found it funny that the standard-issue M16s jammed semi-frequently, while the AK-47s that you can pick up from enemies never jammed"
Well, have you ever used an M16, notorious for it's tendency to jam, or an AK-47, famous for it's reliability? While the 5.56mm ammo of the M16 offers several advantages over the 7.62mm ammo of the AK-47, when it comes to reliability, the AK-47 wins hands down.
There is no such thing as an "AIDS" virus, per say... I think you mean to say that they used a modified HIV virus. AIDS is the resulting symptom that people with HIV (or certain other diseases) might develop.
There is no such thing as an "HIV virus", per se. There is, however a "Human Immunodeficiency Virus", which is shortened to HIV, or - if you will - " the HI-virus".
"If you are a hardcore liberal, then you probably are more likely to believe Osama Bin Laden's propaganda than anything Donald Rumseld says, and if you are of the neo-con flavor, then anything Donald Rumsfeld or George Bush or any of the generals say is gospel to you."
Say what? Why on earth would a "hardcore liberal" believe anythíng Bin Laden says, other than facts that might be corraborated by anouther source? Bin Ladens ideals are pretty fucking far from the ideals of a "hardcore liberal".
Parent post refs uncountry. Poster unbellyfeels war crimethinkwise. Doubleplusungood. Rectify.
"Finland, the #1 country, actually has strong government-controlled media (with government radio making up 61% of listening time)."
(Speaking as a Finn.) Government-funded: yes. Government-controlled: no! Finnish law clearly states that government should not meddle in the affairs of YLE, the national broadcasting company, and governemnt has no power of censorship. While I normally tune in to YLE, I also follow it's private competitors on TV, which aren't far behind in the ratings and also offer top-notch reporting. So does the majority of Finns.
What I fail to understand is why some people seem to think that a private company, with economical interests and investors in eg. the oil business and arms trade, would necessarily offer more reliable and impartial news than a publically funded company. Why would corporations somehow be more honest and unselfish than governments. I mean, sure, don't trust the government blindly, but why should you trust a corporation blindly? Perhaps you'd like your news a bit more Fair and Balanced?
"A theocracy that needs nukes certainly has a faith problem."
So why, then, does the US need nukes?
Quite funny, but Bin Laden would never speak of "the capitalist pig masses" of the US. He hates communism as much as the most hardline republican in the US, if not more. He is a religious fanatic, while communism is usually coupled with the idea of a secular state. And, oh yeah, he actually fought the Soviet Union.
Yes, that is true, but that doesn't make it any less straightforward and simple.
>"which is something I, for one, haven't seen before and think could be pretty useful..."
I, for one, have created a simple Perl-module which conjugates a given Latin verb in all tenses and forms. Let me tell you: conjugating a verb "on the fly" is trivial. Exceptions to every rule do, however, mess things up a little, but the exceptions themselves build up very simple and trivial rules.
Prior art? Hell, yeah!
Non-obvious? Hell, no!
What Israel is doing right now has nothing at all to do with self defence. The civilians of Lebanon pose no threat what-so-ever to either Israel or it's citizens. Two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped by Hezbollah, an independent organisation that does not take orders from anybody, especially not from the Lebanese people being murdered by the hundreds right now and not from the Lebanese government.
Israel is bombing Lebanon "in order to save Israeli lives". Why are Israeli lives inherently more worth than Lebanese lives? Why should we accept that Israel is murdering innocent people just to increase it's lebensraum? And what "restraint" are you talking about? That they haven't been putting Arabs in gas chambers, yet? At this pace, they soon will!
Seriously! This is Poland 1939 all over again!
Bah! You're reading too much into his words. As I see it, what he's trying to say is that the reasons to him leaving are personal, but obvious for some poeple involved. Also, he does not want to start pointing fingers and does not feel he owes anybody an explanation. Perhaps you see this as behaving like a primadonna, but hardly hot-headed behaviour. He doesn't insult anybody in his post, although he obviously wants to and he refrains from whining about whatever he's unhappy about.
"In this case, if you under 18 years of age, I recommend that you buy a box of silver bullets or just plain vanilla lead bullets. Put the bullets into your revolver. Hide the revolver in your jacket. Then, walk into your boss' office. Fire away. You will not be tried as an adult since you are not a legal adult. Better yet, after you reach the age of 18, your criminal record will be wiped clean."
You don't live in the US, do you? In the US, persons under the age of 18 are tried, convicted and executed on a regular basis. Well actually, they aren't being executed until later on in life (nowadays), since the appeals process does take some time.
If you can name a deity that creates artificial sperm and inseminates animals with it, then yes. Otherwise, no.
"Shouldn't they have a right to live and roam free and not be subject to those humans obsessed with fertilizing them? Disgusting and definitely unethical."
Shouldn't cows, chicken, pigs, sheep etc. etc. have the right to roam free an not be subject to those humans obsessed with eating them? I don't know, really... I'm not a vegan. Perhaps you are? Then you probably think that all these animals should have these rights.
Disgust is in the eye of the beholder, but if you claim this to be unethical then you must be against all experiments involving lab rats. Since such experiments have proven successful in the battle against cancer and other ailments, I'm not able to agree with you.
If I ever meet Lenovo, I will shun her/him too.
BTW, who is Lenovo? Why should I care? And how is this news?
Yes, Microsoft is indeed trusted by both experts and non-experts alike as the market-leading provider of malware-safe software. Sigh! If only more people would use IE and Outlook every known virus would have been halted dead in its tracks.
Sarcasm mode turn off!!
We get joke!!
Wrong! Most students will not have an opinion until they experience it. Many will still not have an opinion after that.
"Most dont know or want to know what pop/smtp/imap are"
True, but they will find out the hard way that their e-mail service is lacking something that they can't name. At the latest, they will do so when they try to read their e-mail in some webcafé or similar place that only has a non-IE browser. They will also notice that a lot of their friends have a choice of mail clients, whereas they do not.
When I built an e-mail system for a business school, I was positively surprised by the amount of people who were actually knowledgable far beyond my expectations and they were really opinionated. Freedom of choice matters even among non-CS students. The CS students will of course be outraged and disgusted.
I think a remarkable amount of students will rely on gmail for their e-email.
Well, yes and no. It's not completely dead yet. We still have the "Good Doggie!"-countries like Finland that are urging the ratification of said constitution, without letting the voters decide. Whereas some countries, like Germany, have come with a wise proposition to only include the most essential rights in the constitution, the government of Finland wants to hear none of it.
I love this country, we follow every EU directive, even the more draconian ones, to the letter, only more so, but when it comes to state monopolies, which are not very popular in the EU, we fight to the death for our rights to uphold them. The reason? We (our government) always need to take the course which is least popular among the Finnish population.
For crying out loud!!! This guy points out that American freedom of speech is going through dire straits. And what do Slashdot moderators do? Mod him down, ie. silence him. That exactly proves how right he is. Do you really think that you somehow improve freedom of speech by silencing the voices pointing out that your first amendment rights are in deep trouble???