My apologies to Bruce Wilis, but who really cares? Much of the major commercial software (trial versions, demos, etc.) that you download off the 'net requires that you to agree to some draconian policies that most of us generally don't even bother to read. Why is this any different?
Oh, they require personal information?
Gee, how dastardly. When I apply for a library card at the big bad local library monopoly, they require my name, telephone number, address, and even my e-mail address, if I have one. I feel SOOO victimized.
I know, MS probably chant Satanic rituals over your personal info, so that twitch and the melanoma you've developed are due to them, but, other than that, what difference does it make? Are all Slashdot users really that fucking paranoid?
I blame the X-Files - which made paranoia respectable, after the National Enquirer had tried and failed to do the same thing for decades.
Did you know that MS has recently started selling their own line of black helicopters?
This is along with an audio stream of a special 30 min. ep later in the year.
Wrong. This isn't along with anything: the entire episode is 30 minutes long, broadcast as six real audio files. There is only one episode, singular, and the audio stream you mention above doesn't accompany it, as the words along with imply. The audio stream (although in six parts) _is_ the episode.
It looks like there will be an air of interactivity in the show as well."
Sort of. The listeners will be able to vote on whether they want the Doctor to return. There isn't any interactivity in the show, no outcomes to be decided pertaining to the episode, but a simple vote by listeners as to the Doctor's return.
You would think that this one would be a no-brainer: do we resurrect one of the most popular SF franchises in the world?
This is informative? Propagandizing, yes, but even that poorly.
...when Mozilla is released and starts to take chunks out of IE's dominance...
This is not meant as flamebait, but just who is going to start using Mozilla unless AOL adopts it? The vast majority of web users don't even know what Mozilla is, and this isn't likely to change soon.
If 100% of Slashdot readers, and 100% of Linux users started using Mozilla tomorrow (which isn't going to happen) that still wouldn't qualify as taking chunks out of IE's dominance.
No, because the NRA would be promoting firearm safety, which, rather obviously, has nothing to do with instant messaging.
Of course, a bullet delivered to the brain does send a message - almost instantaneously - but I certainly don't want to be the recipient, and the connection is nebulous at best, don't you think?
If I opened a business and merely appended "ster" to the end of an established corporate name marketing similar or identical product(s), would that be okay?
Let's suppose that I own a diner named Ted's. I have erected a handsome sign above my place of business proclaiming that name, but one morning I come to open the doors and someone has erected a second sign above it, this one proclaiming FuckTed's.
This is the equivalent of what clever child Eric Corley did. It has nothing to do with free speech, but everything to do with being a poser punk looking for notoriety.
I think my opinion can best be expressed by saying Fuck2600.com, but that would make me as juvenile as Corley, so I will resist the temptation.
I would like to see a show on network television where gay characters are depicted in the same manner as straight characters; i.e., without any reference to their sexuality. Most of the time, in real life, it isn't relevant, so why should it be important in a sitcom?
I'm a bisexual male, and my sexuality doesn't come up in everyday life, ever. I am not introduced by my friends as "This is Chas, 40, left-handed, bisexual," any more than my straight friends are introduced with such descriptions.
Maybe if we ignore the sterotypes we will help them go away.
I will probably agree that Discordianism is a religion because it seems to have a relatively large number of (apparently) sincere believers.
Of course, it may be that there are a few sad bastards who actually consider themselves Jedi, and for them I accept that Jedi is their "religion."
I personally don't believe that religion deserves any special protection. Let's say that a co-worker believes that bowling is really fun and important for his mental health, and the optimum day for him to bowl is Sunday. Let's say that I believe that some dead guy needs to be venerated on Sunday. Is my belief any more or less important than his? Legally, yes, but I don't believe that it should be. The law shouldn't favor any particular set of beliefs.
No, lying because you are not a Jedi. While Xtianity might be based on fiction, we know that Jedi do not exist and have never existed.
If I asked you what color your hair was and you answered "blue," it would be true if your hair was blue, but not any other time. Now, the difference is, there is the possibility that your hair is blue, but zero possibility that you are a jedi.
Religion isn't a special category where a new religion pops into existance just because you decide that it might be funny or cool to consider yourself a member. If you can decide that you are a Jedi, then I can decide that I am a pink unicorn and that "pink unicornness" is my religion.
Religion is a deeply held system of beliefs, not semantic tomfoolery.
If MS were selling goods or services that kept people alive, and through their monopolistic practices they knowingly let people die, then I would say MS were doing a Bad Thing[TM]. However, PC's are a purely optional portion of everyone's lives, a convenience rather than a necessity, so MS should have the right to do whatever they fucking want with the product(s) they produce.
Should Coke and Pepsi be sued for pretty much guaranteeing that no other cola manufacturers will ever reach their level of prominence? What about Jif and Skippy?
If I wrote some revolutionary piece of software tomorrow that everyone just _felt_ they had to have (versus really needed like food, water, and shelter), so I sold 50 million copies of it, and then I decided that with every copy of my fantastic software you had to make a contribution to the abortion clinic of my choice, would I lose any sleep over those who complained? Not a single bit. If you don't like my reqirements, then don't use my software. The point is, it is MY software to market as I please, and as long as I am not causing someone physical harm by my marketing strategies, fuck the complainers.
The main reason that there are so many cheap PC's for Slashdotter's to login from and bitch is because there has been largely ONE important OS. It could have been GEM, it could have been MacOS, it could have been AmigaDOS. The fact is, it is Windows. That is a SINGLE operating system without fragmentation made the PC the global seller that it is, and not the competitors. Do you really think that VCRs would have thrived if BetaMax, Philips 2000 and VHS had continued to divide the market? Like Highlander, there was room for only one. In video games, Atari used to reign supreme. Then it was Nintendo and Sega. Now it is Sony. In a while, it might be Sony and MS, or Sony and Nintendo. That is a fact of business; there is only room for a few at the top.
MS has what it takes, and that is a business fact. They might not always play nice, but tough shit. Playing Diablo and flaming on Slashdot aren't legal requirements. We would find other hobbies. Scrabble and Monopoly might become popular again.
So, everyone, quit your whining and use whatever OS floats your boat.
An understanding of computers wasn't considered a crime. Hacking into them was, but even that wasn't what led to this tragedy.
Suicide isn't an option if you are happy and healthy and confronted with a crisis. It isn't even an option for the majority who are depressed and unwell if confronted with a crisis. Thankfully, none of my friends, family, or acquaintances have ever taken their own lives, but I have personally considered it, and only the fact that I could see a "light at the end of the tunnel" prevented me. If I had not been able to see this light, I would be dead now.
Obviously this lad couldn't envision any futures with happy endings. While this a failing of enormous proportions (probably genetic/chemical), I don't know that blame can ever be attributed, least of all to a school district, who, reading the article, didn't even even overreact.
Yes, it is sad, but hacking is a crime, and I hope is always considered as such. I don't buy any of the romantic whitehat/blackhat bullshit. I do lock my doors, but even if I didn't the law would not protect you if you decided to stroll into my house and rifle through my drawers, even if no damage or theft occurred. My property is my property, and stay the fuck out unless I've extended a personal invitation.
Perhaps the real criminal is a media which glamorizes a criminal activity.
Except that it isn't difficult to install an additional copy of a similar program.
For Windows users, there are six different programs that need to be installed to make browsing the web pleasurable: Adobe Acrobat Reader, Apple Quicktime, RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, Flash Player, and Shockwave Player. Many of those programs have ovelapping capabilities, but, for maximum convenience, all of them need to be installed. There may be fewer, or more, that fall into the "required" category, depending on your needs. Out of those six plug-ins, MS controls one of them, and, no, I can't remove it, but, as it does have some unique functionality, I'm glad that it is there.
The point is, MS does not have the monopoly in all things that many people claim. For webpage design, I don't use Frontpage for anything; I use a combination of Textpad, Dreamweaver, NoteTab, notepad, GoLive, HTML Tidy, and HomeSite. I don't use PhotoDraw, I use Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro. I use Word, WordPerfect, and RoughDraft for writing tasks. I use mIRC and ICQ for chatting and instant messaging, and the MS alternatives have existed for a long time.
I use Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, and Opera; I use Outlook Express, Free Agent, Pegasus, Netscape Messenger, and Eudora.
I still prefer Winzip to the zip capability built-in to WinMe, and LviewPro for image previewing to the built-in capability.
Out of the 31 programs cited above, 4 are from MS.
You may be a wonderful parent, but that doesn't invalidate anybody else's views or experiences.
Sometimes, one experience does invalidate another. I'm not saying that this is true in this case, but all views and experiences are not created equal.
Note that I didn't argue against point #2; it is certainly abominable behavior to make others suffer because you are too selfish to remove your child when he/she is causing a disturbance. Your Uncle did the right thing.
If you re-read my post, you will see that I was arguing points #1 and #3.
Sorry, but advice from a childless 21 year old, regardless of how many younger brothers or sisters you may have had, is both arrogant and useless. Until you have actually been a parent, and sometimes not even then, you really don't have a clue.
I've been a successful parent for 17 years. My children are well-balanced, healthy, intelligent, polite, inquisitive, and even good-looking (though this last is definitely from my wife's side). However, each is a separate individual, and there is no one answer as to which action is appropriate for their varied behaviors.
I hug my children every day, numerous times. It's great - they love it, as do I. I would have been thrilled if a simple hug had always been the answer at the times when I needed to be someplace in 5 minutes and their fussing guaranteed that I would be there in 15. If the solution had been a hug, my children would have been among the best behaved infants and toddlers in the world.
As for R-rated films, this also depends on the child. While there are some films that MIGHT be universally deemed innapropriate for certain ages, which films are they, and who made the judgement as to their appropriateness? I reserve exclusive right to make those decisions (in tandem with my wife, usually). If I depended on Hollywood critics and MPAA censors to choose what films we watched, my family would have missed more excellent movies than we have seen. I favor the opposite balance.
You didn't see the same movie I did, then. I've never seen another movie which could so adequately be described as action-packed tedium. It wasn't funny, clever, interesting, or well-acted. I spent the whole time wondering when it was going to be over, and only remained because I couldn't believe there wasn't going to be a single redeemimg moment.
There were two moderately amusing moments, but they didn't redeem the film, or make it even half-way worth viewing: the first fight between the leading ladies, and the second fight between the leading ladies. Subtract those two instances, and the movie is barely a memory.
How a film could be so uninvolving is a wonder to me. I mean that literally. With a relatively talented cast, and millions of dollars pumped into it, shouldn't this film at least had some drama?
No, I am not being a dissenting voice because I enjoy playing devil's advocate, or agreeing with Jon Katz. The film sucked absolutely.
I've worked tech support for many years, and it is not my experience that tech support people are getting more arrogant or in any way "worse" - but that the average PC owner is not as intelligent as their ancestors. And, no, I do not say this out of arrogance, as some may accuse. It just happens to be the truth, as anyone who has spent any time working tech support already knows.
The PC literate of today bought their systems, perhaps assembled their systems, and largely figured out everything themselves. That was part of the joy. But no more. Now, a growing number of consumers buy a computer and expect the sales staff or tech support to hold their hands forever. I can name several customers, not otherwise stupid people, who phone me on a semi-regular basis and are mad at ME because THEY have once again forgotten how to format a floppy disk or copy files.
They consider a PC an appliance, which it is not. Advertisements from AOL, and salesmen pushing Compaq or Hewlett Packard solutions often sell them as such, so this is part of the problem, but not all of it. The real problem is not that the average population has become "dumber" (which it may have - I have other evidence which does suggest this) - but that those now buying PC's do not have the technical inclinations of those who bought before.
So, a salesman sells a piece of complicated electronic equipment to someone, giving them the impression that it is as easy to operate as a toaster, and tech support takes all of the indignant and hostile phone calls from people who make no effort to learn how to use what they purchased, because learning something complicated was not part of their expectation. It was not part of the unspoken contract between saleman and buyer.
How are you expected to deal with someone who, almost weekly, and for three years, calls you with questions so simple and mundane that they should havwe required no explanation at all? Who doesn't know whether they are using Windows or MacOS, or, if they are using Windows, don't know whether they are using Windows 3.1 or Win2k? Who don't know whether they are using Word or Wordpad, who don't know where the Shift or Delete keys are on the keyboard, who can't tell you whether they are using Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator? These are people who use their PC's many hours of every day, who are not stupid, but who blame their own ignorance on the tech support staff.
We have always had some of these phone calls. However, recently, it has exploded. No, tech support people are not arrogant, but we are frustrated. When they same people buy a car, they don't expect the car salesman or the driving instructor to babysit them for the rest of their lives. They don't argue with the mechanic or shout at him.
This patent actually seems to be rather wide in scope.
I quote:
The present invention provides a highly scalable architecture for a three-dimensional graphical, multi-user, interactive virtual world system.
Doesn't EQ meet that description? Asheron's Call? Virtually any of the existing and pending 3D MMORPG's?
As an aside, does anyone remember Midi Maze on the Atari ST? I could describe it as a three-dimensional graphical, multi-user, interactive virtual world system, and it wouldn't be much of a stretch.
Prodigy and AOL did not start out as expensive ISP's. They started out much as GEnie, Compuserve, Cix, and Delphi did - as Online Sevices. An Online Service was a BBS grown king-sized, so you could rightly say that, at one time, Prodigy and AOL were expensive BBS's.
When the Internet became easily available to Joe Public, it largely killed BBS's and hurt Online Services tremendously. AOL decided to provide gateway access to the Internet, and eventually transformed themselves into an ISP with limited proprietary content.
MSN came into existance after BBS's and Online Services were in their final throes. It was never an Online Service that offered Internet access, but from the start an ISP in the AOL re-birthed mold.
Just a bit of history that I thought some might find interesting.:-)
Anne, you are the consummate troll. I salute you. You are _so_ good that I feel compelled to respond to one of your points, even though I know I am wasting my time.
Pornography is indistinguishable from rape.
To show the fallacy of this statement, let me ask you the following question:
Would you rather bare your pussy to a photographer in a warm studio, and leave slightly richer, or be fucked in the ass by a smelly stranger, in a dark alley, after he punched you semi-conscious and broke your jaw?
If you answer the latter, then you are both a liar and too stupid to be the wonderful troll I have come to respect.
I don't honestly know what I think about pornography. I know that I sometimes enjoy it as a consumer - and, yes, this does involve wanking to pictures in a magazine - but I am also terribly intellectually conflicted about its existance.
I've known a few women who were prostitutes, and most of them disliked men intensely. Not because they never thought men's jokes were funny or their company pleasurable, but because they found it impossible to respect a creaure who could be manipulated so easily. Promise a man a blowjob and you own him (at least until after the act is finished). Pretty pathetic, isn't it?
I am a man, and I dislike being one. I've been ashamed of my gender since I was a little boy. If it is ugly or brutal, chances are a man is responsible for it. Men are the rapists and the murderers and the warmongers and abusers. I worked in the welfare office of a well-known charity for a year, and most of the human tragedy that I saw there was male-created. Men drinking the rent money, men beating the wives, men raping the children, men gambling the grocery money, men snorting and drinking and smoking the diaper and infant formula money, etc.
Yes, as a gender, men are pretty fucking loathesome. I know, there are numerous exceptions, but they only prove the rule.
If I am ever reborn, it certainly won't be as a man. I'm tired of having a penis, depite how much fun it is to play with.
Okay, I went on a rant there, but I think it might have helped me clear my head. Maybe pornography is evil, even if you have overstated your case. Maybe porn is just another indicator of why having a cock is a liability.
Bob Hope "originated" in England, but he is not English. Having been "originated" in Ireland doesn't make you Irish. Further, the point that the opposing gentleman was trying to make has more to do with cultural values: I was born in the US, but I am _culturally_ English, as I spent 15 years as an adult there, and found the intellectual/social environment more to my liking. I am culturally English, despite the fact that I am not legally an Englishman.
Your response would be relevant if you were culturally Irish.
So I guess the real question is: is linux a desktop OS yet?
Almost. Very close. But no banana yet. To me, to be a "real" Desktop OS, my out-of-box experience has to be at least as good as that provided by a certain well-known behemoth competitor. Now that I have Ximian installed and running smoothly, it is nearly there. However, whether using Moz (icluding 0.8.1), Konquerer, Netscape, or Galeon, the web experience is very poor when compared to IE 5, 5.5 or 6. I suspect that this is because the font-rendering sucks in X.
Note that I am a Linux newbie, though I have been installing Linux regularly since 1995. It has improved so dramatically that I recently bought a second HD to leave it permanently installed without dual-booting (the Mandrake 7.2 distro).
I don't know that I've ever read a more embarrassing or trite article linked on Slashdot.
However, before we give a sentient being life, we had better recognize that we may be incapable of properly bestowing life...
So, we give a sentient being life? This garbled sentence seems to mean that when we give a sentient being (who is already alive) something called life (which it already has, if life can be considered a possession) we might bestow it improperly.
Gee, how sophomorically profound.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but I'm going to have to revoke your son's license to life, as it was improperly bestowed."
Or:
But what will happen to these clones if we discover that science can't regenerate a soul?
And:
If we manage to destroy our spirits, there's really nothing left.
I don't know that I have a a soul now, nor that such an entity even exists, and the consequences of that uncertainty did not stop me from becoming a parent. If I discovered that souls did not exist, life would be as rich and mysterious as it is now. If I discovered that souls most certainly existed, life would be as rich and mysterious as it is now.
You aren't going to destroy my spirit (whatever that may be) just by giving me knowledge. It is a shallow appreciation of beauty or art that is destroyed by knowlege.
Slashdot Mirror
My apologies to Bruce Wilis, but who really cares? Much of the major commercial software (trial versions, demos, etc.) that you download off the 'net requires that you to agree to some draconian policies that most of us generally don't even bother to read. Why is this any different?
Oh, they require personal information?
Gee, how dastardly. When I apply for a library card at the big bad local library monopoly, they require my name, telephone number, address, and even my e-mail address, if I have one. I feel SOOO victimized.
I know, MS probably chant Satanic rituals over your personal info, so that twitch and the melanoma you've developed are due to them, but, other than that, what difference does it make? Are all Slashdot users really that fucking paranoid?
I blame the X-Files - which made paranoia respectable, after the National Enquirer had tried and failed to do the same thing for decades.
Did you know that MS has recently started selling their own line of black helicopters?
This is along with an audio stream of a special 30 min. ep later in the year.
Wrong. This isn't along with anything: the entire episode is 30 minutes long, broadcast as six real audio files. There is only one episode, singular, and the audio stream you mention above doesn't accompany it, as the words along with imply. The audio stream (although in six parts) _is_ the episode.
It looks like there will be an air of interactivity in the show as well."
Sort of. The listeners will be able to vote on whether they want the Doctor to return. There isn't any interactivity in the show, no outcomes to be decided pertaining to the episode, but a simple vote by listeners as to the Doctor's return.
You would think that this one would be a no-brainer: do we resurrect one of the most popular SF franchises in the world?
This is informative? Propagandizing, yes, but even that poorly.
...when Mozilla is released and starts to take chunks out of IE's dominance...
This is not meant as flamebait, but just who is going to start using Mozilla unless AOL adopts it? The vast majority of web users don't even know what Mozilla is, and this isn't likely to change soon.
If 100% of Slashdot readers, and 100% of Linux users started using Mozilla tomorrow (which isn't going to happen) that still wouldn't qualify as taking chunks out of IE's dominance.
It seems that the trend has been that when console manufacturers start doing things like this, the stability of the console goes downhill.
Trend? Your words imply that console manufacturers have done things like this before, which, correct me if I'm wrong, is certainly not the case.
Unless, of course, your definitions of trend and things like this are radically different than mine...
No, because the NRA would be promoting firearm safety, which, rather obviously, has nothing to do with instant messaging.
Of course, a bullet delivered to the brain does send a message - almost instantaneously - but I certainly don't want to be the recipient, and the connection is nebulous at best, don't you think?
Agreed.
If I opened a business and merely appended "ster" to the end of an established corporate name marketing similar or identical product(s), would that be okay?
"KFCster," selling chicken?
"BKster," selling burgers?
"Jifster," selling peanut butter?
I didn't think so.
Let's suppose that I own a diner named Ted's. I have erected a handsome sign above my place of business proclaiming that name, but one morning I come to open the doors and someone has erected a second sign above it, this one proclaiming FuckTed's.
This is the equivalent of what clever child Eric Corley did. It has nothing to do with free speech, but everything to do with being a poser punk looking for notoriety.
I think my opinion can best be expressed by saying Fuck2600.com, but that would make me as juvenile as Corley, so I will resist the temptation.
I would like to see a show on network television where gay characters are depicted in the same manner as straight characters; i.e., without any reference to their sexuality. Most of the time, in real life, it isn't relevant, so why should it be important in a sitcom?
I'm a bisexual male, and my sexuality doesn't come up in everyday life, ever. I am not introduced by my friends as "This is Chas, 40, left-handed, bisexual," any more than my straight friends are introduced with such descriptions.
Maybe if we ignore the sterotypes we will help them go away.
I will probably agree that Discordianism is a religion because it seems to have a relatively large number of (apparently) sincere believers.
Of course, it may be that there are a few sad bastards who actually consider themselves Jedi, and for them I accept that Jedi is their "religion."
I personally don't believe that religion deserves any special protection. Let's say that a co-worker believes that bowling is really fun and important for his mental health, and the optimum day for him to bowl is Sunday. Let's say that I believe that some dead guy needs to be venerated on Sunday. Is my belief any more or less important than his? Legally, yes, but I don't believe that it should be. The law shouldn't favor any particular set of beliefs.
Lying? Just because I am a non-practising Jedi?
No, lying because you are not a Jedi. While Xtianity might be based on fiction, we know that Jedi do not exist and have never existed.
If I asked you what color your hair was and you answered "blue," it would be true if your hair was blue, but not any other time. Now, the difference is, there is the possibility that your hair is blue, but zero possibility that you are a jedi.
Religion isn't a special category where a new religion pops into existance just because you decide that it might be funny or cool to consider yourself a member. If you can decide that you are a Jedi, then I can decide that I am a pink unicorn and that "pink unicornness" is my religion.
Religion is a deeply held system of beliefs, not semantic tomfoolery.
If MS were selling goods or services that kept people alive, and through their monopolistic practices they knowingly let people die, then I would say MS were doing a Bad Thing[TM]. However, PC's are a purely optional portion of everyone's lives, a convenience rather than a necessity, so MS should have the right to do whatever they fucking want with the product(s) they produce.
Should Coke and Pepsi be sued for pretty much guaranteeing that no other cola manufacturers will ever reach their level of prominence? What about Jif and Skippy?
If I wrote some revolutionary piece of software tomorrow that everyone just _felt_ they had to have (versus really needed like food, water, and shelter), so I sold 50 million copies of it, and then I decided that with every copy of my fantastic software you had to make a contribution to the abortion clinic of my choice, would I lose any sleep over those who complained? Not a single bit. If you don't like my reqirements, then don't use my software. The point is, it is MY software to market as I please, and as long as I am not causing someone physical harm by my marketing strategies, fuck the complainers.
The main reason that there are so many cheap PC's for Slashdotter's to login from and bitch is because there has been largely ONE important OS. It could have been GEM, it could have been MacOS, it could have been AmigaDOS. The fact is, it is Windows. That is a SINGLE operating system without fragmentation made the PC the global seller that it is, and not the competitors. Do you really think that VCRs would have thrived if BetaMax, Philips 2000 and VHS had continued to divide the market? Like Highlander, there was room for only one. In video games, Atari used to reign supreme. Then it was Nintendo and Sega. Now it is Sony. In a while, it might be Sony and MS, or Sony and Nintendo. That is a fact of business; there is only room for a few at the top.
MS has what it takes, and that is a business fact. They might not always play nice, but tough shit. Playing Diablo and flaming on Slashdot aren't legal requirements. We would find other hobbies. Scrabble and Monopoly might become popular again.
So, everyone, quit your whining and use whatever OS floats your boat.
An understanding of computers wasn't considered a crime. Hacking into them was, but even that wasn't what led to this tragedy.
Suicide isn't an option if you are happy and healthy and confronted with a crisis. It isn't even an option for the majority who are depressed and unwell if confronted with a crisis. Thankfully, none of my friends, family, or acquaintances have ever taken their own lives, but I have personally considered it, and only the fact that I could see a "light at the end of the tunnel" prevented me. If I had not been able to see this light, I would be dead now.
Obviously this lad couldn't envision any futures with happy endings. While this a failing of enormous proportions (probably genetic/chemical), I don't know that blame can ever be attributed, least of all to a school district, who, reading the article, didn't even even overreact.
Yes, it is sad, but hacking is a crime, and I hope is always considered as such. I don't buy any of the romantic whitehat/blackhat bullshit. I do lock my doors, but even if I didn't the law would not protect you if you decided to stroll into my house and rifle through my drawers, even if no damage or theft occurred. My property is my property, and stay the fuck out unless I've extended a personal invitation.
Perhaps the real criminal is a media which glamorizes a criminal activity.
Except that it isn't difficult to install an additional copy of a similar program.
For Windows users, there are six different programs that need to be installed to make browsing the web pleasurable: Adobe Acrobat Reader, Apple Quicktime, RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, Flash Player, and Shockwave Player. Many of those programs have ovelapping capabilities, but, for maximum convenience, all of them need to be installed. There may be fewer, or more, that fall into the "required" category, depending on your needs. Out of those six plug-ins, MS controls one of them, and, no, I can't remove it, but, as it does have some unique functionality, I'm glad that it is there.
The point is, MS does not have the monopoly in all things that many people claim. For webpage design, I don't use Frontpage for anything; I use a combination of Textpad, Dreamweaver, NoteTab, notepad, GoLive, HTML Tidy, and HomeSite. I don't use PhotoDraw, I use Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro. I use Word, WordPerfect, and RoughDraft for writing tasks. I use mIRC and ICQ for chatting and instant messaging, and the MS alternatives have existed for a long time.
I use Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, and Opera; I use Outlook Express, Free Agent, Pegasus, Netscape Messenger, and Eudora.
I still prefer Winzip to the zip capability built-in to WinMe, and LviewPro for image previewing to the built-in capability.
Out of the 31 programs cited above, 4 are from MS.
What monopoly?
You may be a wonderful parent, but that doesn't invalidate anybody else's views or experiences.
Sometimes, one experience does invalidate another. I'm not saying that this is true in this case, but all views and experiences are not created equal.
Note that I didn't argue against point #2; it is certainly abominable behavior to make others suffer because you are too selfish to remove your child when he/she is causing a disturbance. Your Uncle did the right thing.
If you re-read my post, you will see that I was arguing points #1 and #3.
Sorry, but advice from a childless 21 year old, regardless of how many younger brothers or sisters you may have had, is both arrogant and useless. Until you have actually been a parent, and sometimes not even then, you really don't have a clue.
I've been a successful parent for 17 years. My children are well-balanced, healthy, intelligent, polite, inquisitive, and even good-looking (though this last is definitely from my wife's side). However, each is a separate individual, and there is no one answer as to which action is appropriate for their varied behaviors.
I hug my children every day, numerous times. It's great - they love it, as do I. I would have been thrilled if a simple hug had always been the answer at the times when I needed to be someplace in 5 minutes and their fussing guaranteed that I would be there in 15. If the solution had been a hug, my children would have been among the best behaved infants and toddlers in the world.
As for R-rated films, this also depends on the child. While there are some films that MIGHT be universally deemed innapropriate for certain ages, which films are they, and who made the judgement as to their appropriateness? I reserve exclusive right to make those decisions (in tandem with my wife, usually). If I depended on Hollywood critics and MPAA censors to choose what films we watched, my family would have missed more excellent movies than we have seen. I favor the opposite balance.
FUN?
You didn't see the same movie I did, then. I've never seen another movie which could so adequately be described as action-packed tedium. It wasn't funny, clever, interesting, or well-acted. I spent the whole time wondering when it was going to be over, and only remained because I couldn't believe there wasn't going to be a single redeemimg moment.
There were two moderately amusing moments, but they didn't redeem the film, or make it even half-way worth viewing: the first fight between the leading ladies, and the second fight between the leading ladies. Subtract those two instances, and the movie is barely a memory.
How a film could be so uninvolving is a wonder to me. I mean that literally. With a relatively talented cast, and millions of dollars pumped into it, shouldn't this film at least had some drama?
No, I am not being a dissenting voice because I enjoy playing devil's advocate, or agreeing with Jon Katz. The film sucked absolutely.
Does anyone else agree with me, excepting Jon?
I've worked tech support for many years, and it is not my experience that tech support people are getting more arrogant or in any way "worse" - but that the average PC owner is not as intelligent as their ancestors. And, no, I do not say this out of arrogance, as some may accuse. It just happens to be the truth, as anyone who has spent any time working tech support already knows.
The PC literate of today bought their systems, perhaps assembled their systems, and largely figured out everything themselves. That was part of the joy. But no more. Now, a growing number of consumers buy a computer and expect the sales staff or tech support to hold their hands forever. I can name several customers, not otherwise stupid people, who phone me on a semi-regular basis and are mad at ME because THEY have once again forgotten how to format a floppy disk or copy files.
They consider a PC an appliance, which it is not. Advertisements from AOL, and salesmen pushing Compaq or Hewlett Packard solutions often sell them as such, so this is part of the problem, but not all of it. The real problem is not that the average population has become "dumber" (which it may have - I have other evidence which does suggest this) - but that those now buying PC's do not have the technical inclinations of those who bought before.
So, a salesman sells a piece of complicated electronic equipment to someone, giving them the impression that it is as easy to operate as a toaster, and tech support takes all of the indignant and hostile phone calls from people who make no effort to learn how to use what they purchased, because learning something complicated was not part of their expectation. It was not part of the unspoken contract between saleman and buyer.
How are you expected to deal with someone who, almost weekly, and for three years, calls you with questions so simple and mundane that they should havwe required no explanation at all? Who doesn't know whether they are using Windows or MacOS, or, if they are using Windows, don't know whether they are using Windows 3.1 or Win2k? Who don't know whether they are using Word or Wordpad, who don't know where the Shift or Delete keys are on the keyboard, who can't tell you whether they are using Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator? These are people who use their PC's many hours of every day, who are not stupid, but who blame their own ignorance on the tech support staff.
We have always had some of these phone calls. However, recently, it has exploded. No, tech support people are not arrogant, but we are frustrated. When they same people buy a car, they don't expect the car salesman or the driving instructor to babysit them for the rest of their lives. They don't argue with the mechanic or shout at him.
Re-think your premise, Jon.
This patent actually seems to be rather wide in scope.
I quote:
The present invention provides a highly scalable architecture for a three-dimensional graphical, multi-user, interactive virtual world system.
Doesn't EQ meet that description? Asheron's Call? Virtually any of the existing and pending 3D MMORPG's?
As an aside, does anyone remember Midi Maze on the Atari ST? I could describe it as a three-dimensional graphical, multi-user, interactive virtual world system, and it wouldn't be much of a stretch.
When the Internet became easily available to Joe Public, it largely killed BBS's and hurt Online Services tremendously. AOL decided to provide gateway access to the Internet, and eventually transformed themselves into an ISP with limited proprietary content.
MSN came into existance after BBS's and Online Services were in their final throes. It was never an Online Service that offered Internet access, but from the start an ISP in the AOL re-birthed mold.
Just a bit of history that I thought some might find interesting.
Anne, you are the consummate troll. I salute you. You are _so_ good that I feel compelled to respond to one of your points, even though I know I am wasting my time.
Pornography is indistinguishable from rape.
To show the fallacy of this statement, let me ask you the following question:
Would you rather bare your pussy to a photographer in a warm studio, and leave slightly richer, or be fucked in the ass by a smelly stranger, in a dark alley, after he punched you semi-conscious and broke your jaw?
If you answer the latter, then you are both a liar and too stupid to be the wonderful troll I have come to respect.
I don't honestly know what I think about pornography. I know that I sometimes enjoy it as a consumer - and, yes, this does involve wanking to pictures in a magazine - but I am also terribly intellectually conflicted about its existance.
I've known a few women who were prostitutes, and most of them disliked men intensely. Not because they never thought men's jokes were funny or their company pleasurable, but because they found it impossible to respect a creaure who could be manipulated so easily. Promise a man a blowjob and you own him (at least until after the act is finished). Pretty pathetic, isn't it?
I am a man, and I dislike being one. I've been ashamed of my gender since I was a little boy. If it is ugly or brutal, chances are a man is responsible for it. Men are the rapists and the murderers and the warmongers and abusers. I worked in the welfare office of a well-known charity for a year, and most of the human tragedy that I saw there was male-created. Men drinking the rent money, men beating the wives, men raping the children, men gambling the grocery money, men snorting and drinking and smoking the diaper and infant formula money, etc.
Yes, as a gender, men are pretty fucking loathesome. I know, there are numerous exceptions, but they only prove the rule.
If I am ever reborn, it certainly won't be as a man. I'm tired of having a penis, depite how much fun it is to play with.
Okay, I went on a rant there, but I think it might have helped me clear my head. Maybe pornography is evil, even if you have overstated your case. Maybe porn is just another indicator of why having a cock is a liability.
Whadaya think?
Bob Hope "originated" in England, but he is not English. Having been "originated" in Ireland doesn't make you Irish. Further, the point that the opposing gentleman was trying to make has more to do with cultural values: I was born in the US, but I am _culturally_ English, as I spent 15 years as an adult there, and found the intellectual/social environment more to my liking. I am culturally English, despite the fact that I am not legally an Englishman.
Your response would be relevant if you were culturally Irish.
Timothy writes:
Strangely, the proposed solution seems to be for the hardware industry to write bloated code...
The article contains this text:
This isn't a call for bloated crap...
Did Tim read the article before he posted?
So I guess the real question is: is linux a desktop OS yet?
:-)
Almost. Very close. But no banana yet. To me, to be a "real" Desktop OS, my out-of-box experience has to be at least as good as that provided by a certain well-known behemoth competitor. Now that I have Ximian installed and running smoothly, it is nearly there. However, whether using Moz (icluding 0.8.1), Konquerer, Netscape, or Galeon, the web experience is very poor when compared to IE 5, 5.5 or 6. I suspect that this is because the font-rendering sucks in X.
Note that I am a Linux newbie, though I have been installing Linux regularly since 1995. It has improved so dramatically that I recently bought a second HD to leave it permanently installed without dual-booting (the Mandrake 7.2 distro).
Feel free to disagree with me if you wish.
Scots are not English.
I don't know that I've ever read a more embarrassing or trite article linked on Slashdot.
However, before we give a sentient being life, we had better recognize that we may be incapable of properly bestowing life...
So, we give a sentient being life? This garbled sentence seems to mean that when we give a sentient being (who is already alive) something called life (which it already has, if life can be considered a possession) we might bestow it improperly.
Gee, how sophomorically profound.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but I'm going to have to revoke your son's license to life, as it was improperly bestowed."
Or:
But what will happen to these clones if we discover that science can't regenerate a soul?
And:
If we manage to destroy our spirits, there's really nothing left.
I don't know that I have a a soul now, nor that such an entity even exists, and the consequences of that uncertainty did not stop me from becoming a parent. If I discovered that souls did not exist, life would be as rich and mysterious as it is now. If I discovered that souls most certainly existed, life would be as rich and mysterious as it is now.
You aren't going to destroy my spirit (whatever that may be) just by giving me knowledge. It is a shallow appreciation of beauty or art that is destroyed by knowlege.