To fight back, I think we should be calling it "freedomware" rather than "free software."
ever notice how the eyes of a non-technical audience glaze over when the geek launches into his latest attempt to explain the connection between free speech and free software?
free speech has meaning only within communites that share the same language and the same values. to anyone other than a programmer, software is - and will remain - a product or a service.
In the petition for certiorari filed with the Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court receives 7,000 or so petitions for review each year. It grants 150. About a quarter of these will ultimately be disposed of in single line or less.
The screening process begins with the Court's law clerks, who sift through the petitions and settle upon a select few that they deem worthy of consideration by the justices. Next, inside a closed conference room, the Chief Justice leads the meeting in which the Justices discuss the petitions and vote aloud on which cases they find more significant and deserving of deliberation. Voting begins with the Chief Justice and is followed by the Associate Justices according to seniority. The most junior Justice...takes the handwritten notes that will be passed to a clerk for public announcement... To be considered, a case must receive at least four votes. Whether or not a case is accepted "strikes me as a rather subjective decision, made up in part of intuition and in part of legal judgement," Rehnquist wrote in his book, "The Supreme Court: How It Was, How It Is." In deciding whether to review a case, the Court will generally consider whether the legal question was decided differently by two lower courts and needs resolution by a higher court, whether a lower court decision conflicts with an existing Supreme Court ruling, and whether the issue could have broader social significance beyond the interests of the two parties involved. However, not all cases of significant social issues needing resolution are accepted by the Supreme Court.
Think today's world, where Apple is the innovative underdog, Google is the company that does no evil, and Microsoft sits atop its throne as ruler of an evil empire. Will this state of affairs last forever?
The Bet Applications stats show Vista poised to claim 20% of the market world-wide. Five times that of the MacIntel platform. Twenty times that of Linux.
Microsoft revenues are up 68% in the client division over Fiscal 2007.
60% of Microsoft's sales are outside the U.S. MS is seeing 30% increases in sales in markets like China, 20% in Europe, 15% in the states.
There is a problem with this. Most corporates with VLKs will just get the PC delivered with whichever operating system it ships with and then drop in their corporate build of XP.
You are assuming that the enterprise market buys PCs with a default OEM install. You are ignoring the down trend in XP in these stats and the pitiful state of the *NIX based OS when you exclude the Mac.
W3Schools builds its stats by monitoring its own and other usage publicly accessible web sites. There is no intelligibe reason for a browser running under XP to claim that it is running under Vista.
In the Net Applications stats Vista is about to claim a 20% share. Five times that of the MacIntel. Twenty times that of Linux.
Microsoft is so dominant at the consumer level that the numbers are difficult to grasp. 67 cents of every new retail dollar spent on software goes to MS Office.
I doubt they know though if they would install XP or Linux on there the laptop would absolutely fly
I shouldn't wonder.
The 2008 laptop at mid line is dual core with 2 GB RAM, a 360 GB HDD, and NVIDIA DX9l/DX10 graphics with 256 MB of dedicated RAM. You were not buying that kind of power in 2001.
I strongly suspect that Vista is more competent in handling this much muscle - and what are mid-line specs today will be entry level tomorrow.
While the Slashdot geek still hasn't quite grasped the notion that RAM and other resources are there to be used, not hoarded.
Why is it that we can't support cheap science...but we can find hundreds of millions of dollars to piss away on some congress critter's bridge?
because his constituents need the bridge more than they need the science.
any return on the investment in the rovers is remote and speculative. the bay bridge is a landmark that can define a community. transform it economically. it can be a significant engineering achievement in its own right.
men like Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Disney and Sagan knew how to communicate to the public directly, how to make a long term investment in science and technology intelligible and engaging.
they could lay a foundation on which the law maker could build.
If they have this equipment at all the major crossings and on the interstates, imagine the cost and the amount of money that has been spent on these type of projects.
probably yields as a good a return on the investment as any random search. remember that alcohol stash you were carrying?
if someone actually wanted to transport a dirty bomb across the US, all they have to do is have a car a few miles ahead containing a radioactive cat, and they'll know for certain if and where there are radiation checkpoints.
would he, now?
the terrorist does not think geek.
he does not broadcast his presence. he does not set off tripwires.
it's not like we have a comparable neighbour a few klicks to the west. Tell me, is San Fran further from or closer to Boston than Moscow is to Vladivostok?
A few klicks to the west?
Boston to SF is 4,344 km.
St Petersburg to Vladivostok is 9,288 km by rail. Eight time zones.
But how many middle or western Europeans are accustomed to thinking of distances on either scale?
why don't we just stop bothering with this moderation BS and pretending to be an unbiased site?
The unbiased site would have:
1 a seperate section for the family of operating systems to be found on 92% of the world's desktops and with a very significant presence in the server room and other markets.
it was done in a much nicer way than IE8 and Windows itself are forced onto users.
The geek might see more than a 0.65% market share for Linux on the desktop if he could let go the ides that Windows is "forced" on anyone.
In Asia and Africa where pirated copies of Windows compete with Linux on the streets, it is Windows that wins.
While WalMart has been trying for years to make OEM Linux mass-market in the states. Lindows. Xandros. The Sun Java System. The gPC... None has gone the distance.
It is easier for the geek to trot out his shopworn conspiracy theories than to look at Window's strengths and successes more deeply and more honestly.
Sins of a Solar Empire has already sold about 200,000 copies in the first month of release. It's the highest-rated PC game of 2008 and probably the best-selling 2008 PC title. Neither of these titles have CD copy protection."
IGN
1. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
2. Sins Of A Solar Empire
3. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
4. The Sims 2 Free Time Expansion Pack
5. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack
6. World Of Warcraft
7. The Orange Box
8. The Sims 2 Deluxe
10. Crysis
1 Hoyle Card Games 2008 $12
2 [Logitech Laser Mouse]
3 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
4 The Sims 2: Free Time
5 Command & Conquer: Kane's Wrath [Out March 24]
6 Sins of a Solar Empire
7 SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition $15
8 Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War Soulstorm
9 World of Warcraft 60 Day Pre-Paid Time Card $30
10 The Sims 2 Deluxe
March 21 [early AM - updates hourly]
The Amazon list is interesting for its diversity - and for its demonstration of the endurance of a classic PC game. SimCity 4 for the Mac will set you back about $60.
With BotNets, Identity Theft and other serious on-line crime, I am so glad that the FBI has the resources to protect us from porn ..
The FBI has the resources to multitask. Child Pornography is a victimless crime only in the - too often adolescent - imagination of the Geek. Innocent Images National Initiative
Officials at a Surprise charter school say they were shocked to learn that a fifth-grade teacher who also taught an after-school program had been distributing and receiving child pornography on the Internet for years.
On Monday, federal agents arrested Victor Scott McPeak, Jr., a teacher at Arizona Charter Academy, after unraveling an international pornography ring spanning more than 20 countries.
Court documents also state that McPeak told two agents he had thousands of sexually explicit images of female minors on his laptop, and admitted he was the only user of the laptop.
Records also state, "McPeak advised that he has had a sexual interest in minors for approximately five years and he has been attempting to hide his sexual interest from his 12-year-old daughter."
Europol officials reportedly identified one of the ringleaders as an Italian national who was operating a Web site that advertised and distributed videos of minors, some under the age of 10, engaging in sexual acts.
two agents visited McPeak in Surprise on Monday and were told:
" . . . he predominantly has sexually explicit images and videos of females between the ages of eight to twelve on his laptop computer."
" . . . he looks for child pornography on the Internet two hours every night after his children's bedtime."
This is the second case in 14 months in which a Surprise charter school has been linked to possible sex offenses involving minors.
Investigators in January 2007 discovered that a 29-year-old sex offender had been posing for several months in fall 2006 as a pre-teen at Imagine School at Rosefield. Neil Havens Rodreick II was finally caught while trying to pull the same ruse at a Chino Valley charter school.Surprise charter-school teacher busted for child porn [March 20]
Slashdot Mirror
ever notice how the eyes of a non-technical audience glaze over when the geek launches into his latest attempt to explain the connection between free speech and free software?
free speech has meaning only within communites that share the same language and the same values. to anyone other than a programmer, software is - and will remain - a product or a service.
The U.S. Supreme Court receives 7,000 or so petitions for review each year. It grants 150. About a quarter of these will ultimately be disposed of in single line or less.
The screening process begins with the Court's law clerks, who sift through the petitions and settle upon a select few that they deem worthy of consideration by the justices. Next, inside a closed conference room, the Chief Justice leads the meeting in which the Justices discuss the petitions and vote aloud on which cases they find more significant and deserving of deliberation. Voting begins with the Chief Justice and is followed by the Associate Justices according to seniority. The most junior Justice...takes the handwritten notes that will be passed to a clerk for public announcement... To be considered, a case must receive at least four votes. Whether or not a case is accepted "strikes me as a rather subjective decision, made up in part of intuition and in part of legal judgement," Rehnquist wrote in his book, "The Supreme Court: How It Was, How It Is." In deciding whether to review a case, the Court will generally consider whether the legal question was decided differently by two lower courts and needs resolution by a higher court, whether a lower court decision conflicts with an existing Supreme Court ruling, and whether the issue could have broader social significance beyond the interests of the two parties involved. However, not all cases of significant social issues needing resolution are accepted by the Supreme Court.
A History of the Supreme Court
Hmmm, could be...
Top Operating System Share Trend for April 2007 to February 2008
The Bet Applications stats show Vista poised to claim 20% of the market world-wide. Five times that of the MacIntel platform. Twenty times that of Linux.
Microsoft revenues are up 68% in the client division over Fiscal 2007.
60% of Microsoft's sales are outside the U.S. MS is seeing 30% increases in sales in markets like China, 20% in Europe, 15% in the states.
Microsoft Q2 2008 By The Numbers
You are assuming that the enterprise market buys PCs with a default OEM install. You are ignoring the down trend in XP in these stats and the pitiful state of the *NIX based OS when you exclude the Mac.
W3Schools builds its stats by monitoring its own and other usage publicly accessible web sites. There is no intelligibe reason for a browser running under XP to claim that it is running under Vista.
KMOX fan as well? For three generations: WSM in Nashville. "The Grand Old Opry."
What rebellion? The trend lines for Vista are strong:
Top Operating System Share Trend for April, 2007 to February, 2008
In the Net Applications stats Vista is about to claim a 20% share. Five times that of the MacIntel. Twenty times that of Linux.
Microsoft is so dominant at the consumer level that the numbers are difficult to grasp. 67 cents of every new retail dollar spent on software goes to MS Office.
I shouldn't wonder.
The 2008 laptop at mid line is dual core with 2 GB RAM, a 360 GB HDD, and NVIDIA DX9l/DX10 graphics with 256 MB of dedicated RAM. You were not buying that kind of power in 2001.
I strongly suspect that Vista is more competent in handling this much muscle - and what are mid-line specs today will be entry level tomorrow.
While the Slashdot geek still hasn't quite grasped the notion that RAM and other resources are there to be used, not hoarded.
because his constituents need the bridge more than they need the science.
any return on the investment in the rovers is remote and speculative. the bay bridge is a landmark that can define a community. transform it economically. it can be a significant engineering achievement in its own right.
men like Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Disney and Sagan knew how to communicate to the public directly, how to make a long term investment in science and technology intelligible and engaging.
they could lay a foundation on which the law maker could build.
The Slashdot take on Vista is that it is a failure in the marketplace. Post numbers that suggest otherwise and the geek shifts his ground.
probably yields as a good a return on the investment as any random search. remember that alcohol stash you were carrying?
would he, now?
the terrorist does not think geek.
he does not broadcast his presence. he does not set off tripwires.
A few klicks to the west?
Boston to SF is 4,344 km.
St Petersburg to Vladivostok is 9,288 km by rail. Eight time zones.
But how many middle or western Europeans are accustomed to thinking of distances on either scale?
The unbiased site would have:
1 a seperate section for the family of operating systems to be found on 92% of the world's desktops and with a very significant presence in the server room and other markets.
Operating System Market Share for February, 2008
2 it would dispose of the stained glass window and Borg icons which set the tone for every posting
3 it would accept that Vista is showing sustained and healthy growth in the marketplace, while the *NIX platforms, other than OSX, appear stagnant.
Top Operating System Share Trend for April, 2007 to February, 2008
[Vista 13%. "The Other" 2%]
OS Platform Dtatistics February 2008
[Vista 8% Up from 0% in one year. Linux 4% Up from 2% in five years.]
2 It's a post from Twitter.
3 It got the green light from kdawson.
once you have dug the trench and laid the fiber, how much does it cost to maintain it?
compared to maintaining 10,000 wireless APs continually exposed to the weather, small animals, vandals, etc?
Medium-Wave broadcasting in the U.S. evolved when the country was still significantly rural.
Distances in the U.S. can defeat the European imagination.
The 50,000 watt "clear channel" station could be heard across several states - and to istances of 1,000 miles under favorable conditions.
AM radio had a distinct local or regional identity which persists to this day.
and the cost of building and maintaining 10,000 access points will be what. exactly?
Stations of relatively modest power can provide services to distances of about 100 miles.
Receivers are cheap, portable and ubiquitous.
The AM radio is as accessible and familiar to the four year old as it is to the centenarian.
It couldn't have been because broadcast power was a crackpot idea even when it came from the mind of a Tesla.
How much power would have had to be pumped into these towers to supply a relatively compact suburban population of five or six thousand households?
which more or less sums up why OSX and Windows own 99% of the desktop market.
This tech - made affordable - would be an enormous boost to the morale of the elderly and disabled.
It is important to keep physically active, of course.
But to win a game - or simply to be competitive - against those less physically restricted [their own grandkids, perhaps] would be sweet.
The geek might see more than a 0.65% market share for Linux on the desktop if he could let go the ides that Windows is "forced" on anyone.
In Asia and Africa where pirated copies of Windows compete with Linux on the streets, it is Windows that wins.
While WalMart has been trying for years to make OEM Linux mass-market in the states. Lindows. Xandros. The Sun Java System. The gPC... None has gone the distance.
It is easier for the geek to trot out his shopworn conspiracy theories than to look at Window's strengths and successes more deeply and more honestly.
--- and Vista is not the failure the geek pretends: OS Platform Stats
That can be as simple a thing as replacing the cross-town bridge. It can as complex as providing food, medical care and housing for the elderly.
The winning candidates delivers the goods.
The present mood isn't for political reform as the Geek understands it.
It is a demand for attention to pressing domestic needs and a deep-rooted fatigue with the ideologues of the left and the right.
IGN
1. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
2. Sins Of A Solar Empire
3. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
4. The Sims 2 Free Time Expansion Pack
5. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack
6. World Of Warcraft
7. The Orange Box
8. The Sims 2 Deluxe
10. Crysis
Courtesy of NPD
February's Top 10 Best Selling PC Games [March 13]
Amazon.com
1 Hoyle Card Games 2008 $12
2 [Logitech Laser Mouse]
3 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
4 The Sims 2: Free Time
5 Command & Conquer: Kane's Wrath [Out March 24]
6 Sins of a Solar Empire
7 SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition $15
8 Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War Soulstorm
9 World of Warcraft 60 Day Pre-Paid Time Card $30
10 The Sims 2 Deluxe
March 21 [early AM - updates hourly]
The Amazon list is interesting for its diversity - and for its demonstration of the endurance of a classic PC game. SimCity 4 for the Mac will set you back about $60.
The FBI has the resources to multitask. Child Pornography is a victimless crime only in the - too often adolescent - imagination of the Geek. Innocent Images National Initiative
Officials at a Surprise charter school say they were shocked to learn that a fifth-grade teacher who also taught an after-school program had been distributing and receiving child pornography on the Internet for years.
On Monday, federal agents arrested Victor Scott McPeak, Jr., a teacher at Arizona Charter Academy, after unraveling an international pornography ring spanning more than 20 countries.
Court documents also state that McPeak told two agents he had thousands of sexually explicit images of female minors on his laptop, and admitted he was the only user of the laptop.
Records also state, "McPeak advised that he has had a sexual interest in minors for approximately five years and he has been attempting to hide his sexual interest from his 12-year-old daughter."
Europol officials reportedly identified one of the ringleaders as an Italian national who was operating a Web site that advertised and distributed videos of minors, some under the age of 10, engaging in sexual acts.
two agents visited McPeak in Surprise on Monday and were told:
" . . . he predominantly has sexually explicit images and videos of females between the ages of eight to twelve on his laptop computer."
" . . . he looks for child pornography on the Internet two hours every night after his children's bedtime."
This is the second case in 14 months in which a Surprise charter school has been linked to possible sex offenses involving minors.
Investigators in January 2007 discovered that a 29-year-old sex offender had been posing for several months in fall 2006 as a pre-teen at Imagine School at Rosefield. Neil Havens Rodreick II was finally caught while trying to pull the same ruse at a Chino Valley charter school. Surprise charter-school teacher busted for child porn [March 20]