Frankly, I have a certain suspicion that most Americans (perhaps even more than other nationalities) are too busy watching wrestling, praising Jesus, declaring war on abstract nouns, etc., to pay attention to whether the leader of their country is capable of rational discourse, let alone whether a particular wireless protocol is empowering large companies or not.
(Yes, I'm going for an even split between funny and troll).
Frankly, I would suspect the best boss for a tech company (from a consumer perspective) would be non-technical, and would demand from his/her systems the simplicity for a non-technical person to operate them.
Note: I work in tech support, so my comment is probably colored by having to tell people what a keyboard is, how to right click, that rebooting is different than reformatting, and so forth.
I wonder when the demand for some shows will become great enough that fans will be able to finance entire shows DIRECTLY. Could probably save a pretty penny by not having to pay so many executives too.
Ironically, I'm reading this from my ISP tech support job, and you'd be stunned how bad the calls get. And probably how far we go to fix them sometimes.
I'd say about 0.1% of calls, if that, could show any hint of being our problem. People don't just call us about the net being slow, they ask us about MSN, printers, screen resolutions, everything. I think my favourite calls have been as follows:
1. "Close that window, please" "How do I do that?" "Just click the X at the top right corner" "What is an X?"
2. "Is the text highlighted blue?" "Yes" "Okay, press backspace" "I don't see backspace"... "Okay, press delete" "Okay, it says 'you can delete all offline content'..." "No no, don't CLICK 'delete files', press the delete key on the keyboard" "What's a keyboard?"... Insert about 5 mins of me unsuccessfully trying to explain what a keyboard is.
3. "What is a modem?" "Well, it's basically a phone for your computer; it lets your computer talk to our computer through the phone lines" "What's a phone?" "Uh, the thing you're talking to me on"
Hmm... "Intellectual property is the biggest export of the US."... "we import everything and export nothing"... They sound pretty much the same to me.:P
I've used Vector Linux 4.0 (SOHO version) for a while, and I have to say a couple of things.
1. Judging it by the same apps (firefox, for instance), it was STUNNINGLY fast compared to XP Pro and all other Linux distros I've tried (Fedora, Mandrake, Arch, even Gentoo).
2. It sorely lacks a good dependency-handling package manager. Two exist that I'm aware of (Swaret and Slapt-get), and unfortunately they both just aren't that good. If this was remedied, well... just... wow.
Abolish them. Seriously. Children in grade school tend to get chastised for immaturity when they cry "I thought of it first". Why does this behaviour get rewarded as an adult?
Or, if you ABSOLUTELY cling to the idea that greed is the only way anything will ever get done, at the very least shorten terms to the point that patents aren't so lucrative that they're considered the only important thing about doing business. Also, require an implementation to be submitted along with patent applications (to help prevent patenting things to prevent others from doing it).
Uh... Would you standardize on one horrible dictator for the sake of strengthening the collective?
I mean, really. You're right that it strengthens the companies, but does the economic good of certain companies really balance out the evil of stupid patent law? Remember that when a company makes money, they make it from other people.
First of all, where I come from (Canada), there's no such thing as high school civics. Incidentally, I just finished a degree in engineering physics. Engineers tend to view things in terms of how they can be made to work the desired way. Lawyers (presumably the type of person most interested in civics), on the other hand, tend to be at best a necessary evil.
Anyway... Are you saying that the jump to freedom of information should not be made? Or are you merely disputing the size of the jump? Can you perhaps provide any kind of reason or evidence to change my view rather than simply disputing it?
I'm tired of this. Stop restricting information flow with legal means. Stop having copyrights and patents. If people want to keep secrets, let them encrypt their data. If people want to hack that encryption, let them try.
It's a ridiculously tiny jump from freedom of speech to freedom of information. The only reason it seems like a big jump to having no copyrights is that, although we're far better off than some parts of the world, we don't REALLY have free speech.
Bottom line: if they want the TV revenue, let them take the risks associated with having it out there. As the article says, at this point an online viewer would be lucky to watch the game by the next day anyway, and who knows? Maybe this kind of exposure would draw in MORE fans and let them sell out MORE games. Maybe.
Is it just me, or is saying "[insert OS here] users are smarter" equivalent to saying that that OS is harder to use? I mean, I consider myself fairly intelligent, but still... While I'd by no means consider this a complete indictment of Apple, I'd say it makes me think their famed ease-of-use might just be a myth. I mean I guess it's POSSIBLE that it could be more educational and easier at the same time, but I doubt it.
Yeah even the extensions thing is beautiful. Anyone know why Winamp is still so popular? Plugins. If you're willing to put a little searching time in, you can make it work exactly how you want it to, no matter how picky you are. Extensions are THE way to go if you want to browse the web on YOUR terms rather than MS's.
For reference, I highly recommend the following extensions: Adblock, Flashblock, Googlebar, Context Search, Mycroft (pick and choose these though), All-in-one Gestures, and Tabbrowser Extensions. Wonderful stuff.
Basically, what I think you're saying is that MS also doesn't guarantee upward compatibility, and I agree.
It's also worth noting that when MS breaks compatibility, you're pretty much doomed because it's closed source. When something open source breaks compatibility, if there's a way to alter/filter/import data to make it fit, you at least have the options of writing code to do it yourself, or paying someone independent to write it.
Me. Intensely. Many people call me an elitist bastard for believing that I know better than they do what constitutes good music. I believe the very fact that I care so intensely (combined with the fact that I write songs myself) justifies me in that regard.
Slashdot Mirror
Does anyone else find it shocking when an app that starts with K is only available for Windows and OS X?
No, the submitter is called "Eh-wire"
Frankly, I have a certain suspicion that most Americans (perhaps even more than other nationalities) are too busy watching wrestling, praising Jesus, declaring war on abstract nouns, etc., to pay attention to whether the leader of their country is capable of rational discourse, let alone whether a particular wireless protocol is empowering large companies or not.
(Yes, I'm going for an even split between funny and troll).
Frankly, I would suspect the best boss for a tech company (from a consumer perspective) would be non-technical, and would demand from his/her systems the simplicity for a non-technical person to operate them.
Note: I work in tech support, so my comment is probably colored by having to tell people what a keyboard is, how to right click, that rebooting is different than reformatting, and so forth.
Haha once again I think I'm being more clever than I am.
:)
Accidental -1, Redundant to me.
I wonder when the demand for some shows will become great enough that fans will be able to finance entire shows DIRECTLY. Could probably save a pretty penny by not having to pay so many executives too.
Ironically, I'm reading this from my ISP tech support job, and you'd be stunned how bad the calls get. And probably how far we go to fix them sometimes.
I'd say about 0.1% of calls, if that, could show any hint of being our problem. People don't just call us about the net being slow, they ask us about MSN, printers, screen resolutions, everything. I think my favourite calls have been as follows:
1. "Close that window, please" "How do I do that?" "Just click the X at the top right corner" "What is an X?"
2. "Is the text highlighted blue?" "Yes" "Okay, press backspace" "I don't see backspace"... "Okay, press delete" "Okay, it says 'you can delete all offline content'..." "No no, don't CLICK 'delete files', press the delete key on the keyboard" "What's a keyboard?"... Insert about 5 mins of me unsuccessfully trying to explain what a keyboard is.
3. "What is a modem?" "Well, it's basically a phone for your computer; it lets your computer talk to our computer through the phone lines" "What's a phone?" "Uh, the thing you're talking to me on"
Sorry, just needed to vent.
His point was that nobody's going to bother going through a router to do that when there are innumerable completely unprotected boxes out there.
Hmm... "Intellectual property is the biggest export of the US."... "we import everything and export nothing"... They sound pretty much the same to me. :P
I've used Vector Linux 4.0 (SOHO version) for a while, and I have to say a couple of things.
1. Judging it by the same apps (firefox, for instance), it was STUNNINGLY fast compared to XP Pro and all other Linux distros I've tried (Fedora, Mandrake, Arch, even Gentoo).
2. It sorely lacks a good dependency-handling package manager. Two exist that I'm aware of (Swaret and Slapt-get), and unfortunately they both just aren't that good. If this was remedied, well... just... wow.
I fail to see how "fair and balanced" equates to "not siding with either consumers or lobbyists".
As far as I see it, consumers should take precedence in almost all cases, and copyright is no exception.
Pfft... I'm not going to get excited until Netcraft confirms it.
Abolish them. Seriously. Children in grade school tend to get chastised for immaturity when they cry "I thought of it first". Why does this behaviour get rewarded as an adult?
Or, if you ABSOLUTELY cling to the idea that greed is the only way anything will ever get done, at the very least shorten terms to the point that patents aren't so lucrative that they're considered the only important thing about doing business. Also, require an implementation to be submitted along with patent applications (to help prevent patenting things to prevent others from doing it).
Uh... Would you standardize on one horrible dictator for the sake of strengthening the collective?
I mean, really. You're right that it strengthens the companies, but does the economic good of certain companies really balance out the evil of stupid patent law? Remember that when a company makes money, they make it from other people.
Agreed completely. If I had the ability to mod up a reply to me, I'd do so here.
First of all, where I come from (Canada), there's no such thing as high school civics. Incidentally, I just finished a degree in engineering physics. Engineers tend to view things in terms of how they can be made to work the desired way. Lawyers (presumably the type of person most interested in civics), on the other hand, tend to be at best a necessary evil.
Anyway... Are you saying that the jump to freedom of information should not be made? Or are you merely disputing the size of the jump? Can you perhaps provide any kind of reason or evidence to change my view rather than simply disputing it?
I'm tired of this. Stop restricting information flow with legal means. Stop having copyrights and patents. If people want to keep secrets, let them encrypt their data. If people want to hack that encryption, let them try.
It's a ridiculously tiny jump from freedom of speech to freedom of information. The only reason it seems like a big jump to having no copyrights is that, although we're far better off than some parts of the world, we don't REALLY have free speech.
Bottom line: if they want the TV revenue, let them take the risks associated with having it out there. As the article says, at this point an online viewer would be lucky to watch the game by the next day anyway, and who knows? Maybe this kind of exposure would draw in MORE fans and let them sell out MORE games. Maybe.
Think MSNBC (and Newsbot) will carry THIS story? :)
And yet you're typing on Slashdot from your computer desk... :P
:)
Oh wait... So am I.
Law books? Shoulda read a little more carefully. ;)
Is it just me, or is saying "[insert OS here] users are smarter" equivalent to saying that that OS is harder to use? I mean, I consider myself fairly intelligent, but still... While I'd by no means consider this a complete indictment of Apple, I'd say it makes me think their famed ease-of-use might just be a myth. I mean I guess it's POSSIBLE that it could be more educational and easier at the same time, but I doubt it.
Yeah even the extensions thing is beautiful. Anyone know why Winamp is still so popular? Plugins. If you're willing to put a little searching time in, you can make it work exactly how you want it to, no matter how picky you are. Extensions are THE way to go if you want to browse the web on YOUR terms rather than MS's.
For reference, I highly recommend the following extensions: Adblock, Flashblock, Googlebar, Context Search, Mycroft (pick and choose these though), All-in-one Gestures, and Tabbrowser Extensions. Wonderful stuff.
Basically, what I think you're saying is that MS also doesn't guarantee upward compatibility, and I agree.
It's also worth noting that when MS breaks compatibility, you're pretty much doomed because it's closed source. When something open source breaks compatibility, if there's a way to alter/filter/import data to make it fit, you at least have the options of writing code to do it yourself, or paying someone independent to write it.
Heh... And my first search for Knoppix resulted in an error. But it seems to be working now. Maybe it's just being slashdotted?
Me. Intensely. Many people call me an elitist bastard for believing that I know better than they do what constitutes good music. I believe the very fact that I care so intensely (combined with the fact that I write songs myself) justifies me in that regard.