"Again, I think this is exaggerated. OTOH, maybe its just the opportunity OpenBSD needs to take its rightful place in the market...;)"
*BSD are great, they are extremely solid and worthwhile systems. But they don't really offer any benefit over linux that is substantial enough to justify dividing the efforts of the open source world. People CLAIM they are more stable and secure but how do you compare systems that can both be secured properly and never crash? Linux simply has a lot more polish at this point and a lot more active development. *BSD could do equally well if it were given all that polish but at this point it is a waste of effort to reinvent the wheel. We already have a rock solid *nix system that is also polished enough to for Desktop use and flexible enough to power wristwatches.
It doesn't matter, Patent protection = Additional Permission. If there are any additional requirements to distribute the software beyond the terms of the GPL then the GPL denies the right to distribute under the GPL.
Actually I would think DHCP being common practice among ISPs would muddy the issue more than private nets and proxies.
While the odds would be slim, seeing the same IP wouldn't mean the same person was behind it. This is the same reason that banning IP's is bad practice.
I agree entirely with the rest of your post but I'll comment on this part:
'"Don't kill people, or we'll kill you." Doesn't it strike you as being hypocritical to have a death penalty when there's a law against killing people?'
You could say the same about imprisonment. Doesn't it strike you as being hypocritical to force people into cages at gunpoint when there are laws against kidnapping and aggravated assault?
If you have anarchy, everyone who is strong enough has the right to kill or imprison. That right is more natural and 'god given' than any of the more noble pretend rights we wrote into our constitution. We have societies and government to allow us to collectively band together and form a force that we transfer some of our individual rights to. This is born of the fear that there are those stronger than you who will dominate you in ways that are worse than the collective authority's abuse of power.
'Not to mention that in our system it actually costs more to kill someone than to keep them in prison for life.'
You are right. Either we have a death penalty or not. If we are going to have a death penalty then we need to grow some balls and kill the prisoners. It shouldn't cost any more to house the prisoners during the appeals process than it does to house any other prisoner. The current method of execution is both overpriced and more cruel than anything else we could have devised. It is ridiculous to nitpick over the cruelty of a method of execution, as long as torture is not being employed. Extended imprisonment is far more cruel than feeling a few moments of physical pain. Put a razor sharp blade on a 20 ton hydraulic press and you will have a 100% success rate in first cut be-headings. If honest prices are to be had the machine will cost less than $5,000/ea and the price to run it is just a few dollars per execution.
None of that is to say that there should or should not be a death penalty, just logistics around the issue. Personally I do not believe in a deity or magical afterlife and I do not hold any form of life innately more sacred than another. It seems reasonable to me to pull the weeds from the garden that are draining the life from the flowers. If the people are the flowers and weeds than I would rather concentrate on working toward a garden that suits my vision than disputing the need to pull weeds rather than transplant them to another garden.
I hope not. The whole point of AC posting is that the admins don't know whether the person who posted that message really moderated or not. If actions are taken in this case then it opens the window for AC's to hurt moderators simply by claiming they are the moderator and they mod'd like they did for 'insert bad reason here'.
"So let me get this straight, you see the biggest story on domestic terrorism in five years, and you think it's funny?"
Yes I look upon this pathetic excuse for a terrorist act and agree that it is the biggest incident of domestic terrorism in five years the second largest in the past fifteen years, third largest in decades.
With that in mind I look at the 'war on terror' we wage that has caused more terror and death than the United States has seen as a result of domestic terror. Yes, I find the situation so sad that it transcends sadness and can only be comprehended as a joke.
IANAL nor do I claim any special knowledge on the topic. I do know the discussion has come up on Slashdot before and it appeared the general consensus among the IAAL's was that if you make a true statement and that statement causes $50,000 in damages to me then you are open to a lawsuit from me. The statement being true probably makes you safe but my understanding is that in the US a judge decides the point rather than a law that explicitly protects those making true statements.
Remember the flying alien thing that held Anakin skywalker and his mother as slaves? For some reason when I read this guys replys the narration in my head is in the aliens voice.
I got partway through the answers before it became blatantly obvious that everything this guy says is coming straight from a Microsoft PR perspective.
"I think the core of your question is about giving away Windows licenses for free. We love developers, period. We're also not about to give away Windows client licenses."
The question had nothing to do with windows client licenses. The question had to do with running internet explorer outside of a windows client license. Failing to block people from using IE on other platforms without requiring them to purchase windows is a far cry from giving away free copies of windows.
Had he not been a PR bot he could have answered the question by simply stating "Yes, we intentionally blocked IE from running on wine by requiring WGA Validation. We did this because we want a windows client license to be prerequisite to running the browser."
Since this is a US forum and a US TLD I will make the assumption that the story poster is in the US. In the US truth is not a guarantee of immunity from slander suits. In most other nations the slander being truthful guantees you will win the case but not here. In the US you can still be nailed if the slander resulted in damages, even if what you said is provably true.
"Why do you want to make sure that only the most fallible machine in the world can read the ballots?"
Because if you have a machine processing the ballots then you have simply moved the problem from one computer to another. Instead of a hack on the voting machines you now have to worry about a hack that impacts the tally machines.
I agree with paper elections. I also think that digital machines can have a place in elections. You make your choices on a computer, the computer prints out the ballot. The ballot is plain english and human readable. Nothing computer readable, not even a barcode.
This way you don't have to worry about people not being able to figure out how to punch the ballot, but there is no way a computer can rig an election.
Sorry but when I hear this conjecture about might have been a nuke, might not have been all that appears in my mind are Iraqi nuke tubes that have nothing to do with nukes at all.
School is not life nor a simulation thereof. A big problem with the education system today is the life simulation thing is being done too much when school should be 100% education. Fit people have no advantage when it comes to education. Actually being overly fit may conflict with intellectual persuits. Behind every stereotype (like the dumb jock) there is an element of truth.
"Boys have a penis and girls have a vagina. If you see other people's hoo-hoo's, it's not a big deal. If you work out, you will see other naked humans."
So you don't value privacy. I do. The last thing I care to see before and after an already unpleasant experience is your nasty ass naked.
"Walking around, moving stuff, dating, whatever. It's not wrong to encourage excercise - and believe me, I hated it in school."
Most day to day tasks do not require buffing up at all and doing so is not an advantage. For instance, unless you are grossly overweight you can handle the walking required in day to day life just as well as a marathon runner. I wouldn't call myself 'fit' these days but walking a few miles is not exactly a chore. Heavy lifting is not exactly something that most of us need to do on a regular basis and can be left to the fit people who work overly physical jobs. And of course being fit does not give you an advantage for non-physical jobs.
As for dating, that depends on who you want to date. If your tastes cause you to prefer athletic types of the opposite sex. Even if you do, in adult life, wealth is a far bigger advantage when it comes time to get laid.
"Maybe spamhaus.cuisinewiki.com doesn't appeal to them."
lol the point is a domain costs about $5 to register and spamhaus isn't exactly a great or intuitive name anyway. I think they should register spamhaus2.org just to mock the court. If MS can mock the courts than surely spamhaus can as well.
First, you mod posts according to the post, not the sig. Second the hosting account expired on that site, the ads aren't mine. I just haven't bothered to update my sig in awhile.
Nobody seemed to be especially interested in the cooking site.
"I doubt many grants are issued because of newspaper articles."
You win grants the same way you win anything else; in a popularity contest. The more popular the research you are doing is, the better your chances are of getting it funded. One way to get your area popular is to get press coverage.
Did you think they were awarded based on merit or something? On paper they are. Just like everything else in life, the real story never matches the paper.
"Seriously, why do you have to resort to ridiculous movie-plot science in an attempt to understand this?"
Because these scientists ARE conducting research that potentially results lives being saved by having humans breath poisonous gas? The dramatic parts were already there, I didn't invent them. Considering how dangerous this is it wouldn't suprise me if they really did need some favorable press to get research grants.
Symantec doesn't want windows to become irrelevant
on
The Relevance of Windows
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Symantec has an extremely hefty investment in the windows platform. Symantec has put out fud here and there about open source security precisely because the software is too secure. If an alternative to windows were to gain substantial market share that would mean lost marketshare for Symantec since their AV products wouldn't be needed, used, or even available on that platform.
At the same time Symantec wants all that juicy system internal information that microsoft won't share or charges them out the arse for now.
"The rich are paying their fair share, and then some, and then some more."
You reveal your income bracket here. The rest of your post is either condescension (you aren't entitled to any sonny) or meaningless statistics taken out of context and used for propaganda.
"Gas prices are down to near their normal inflation-adjusted levels."
Compared to when? The gas crunch? 5 years ago gas was about $1.50/gallon. Now gas is about $3/gallon. Your math seems a bit skewed to me. If you are claiming that inflation rates are so high that the dollar is worth half what it was 5 years ago then our economy is in a very sad state indeed.
"We are at 4.6% unemployment, which is pretty close to what economists consider full employment"
Sounds great. Of course it is meaningless. The biggest single glaring fact that makes your unemployment statistic worthless is that it only considers people who are actually drawing unemployment benefits. That is a small fraction of the unemployed. It also considers part-time and minimum wage (or near minimum) workers employed.
"At the same time, the share of national income earned by the top 1% has fallen from 21% under Clinton to 19% under Bush."
How about the top 5%? How about the top 10%? This is why statistics are useless for anything but propaganda. No matter what your viewpoint you can pick the numbers that suit your position.
"Most of what you think you know about the economy from listening to the mainstream media is a crock of shit."
The media? Who needs to look to the media to find out about the economy? Look to the people. Your average citizen is now making $25,000 or less and has no benefits. The reason they have no benefits is that almost all corporations have eliminated full-time positions among non-management workers. If you look at the workers filling positions typically held by teens you will now find adults working those jobs. A single adult in this position is forced to live with family or a roommate. In a marriage both the husband and wife must work just to keep up and they are building a landlord equity instead of themselves. Remember when the economy was healthy and one individual could work hard and support a house and car, plus put away something to take care of their family? Now both a husband and wife must work and they must save to be able to afford insurance, forget building to the future.
There is nothing fine about the economy if you are looking at it from the position of most of the working citizens instead of the position of the most successful citizens.
Slashdot Mirror
"Again, I think this is exaggerated. OTOH, maybe its just the opportunity OpenBSD needs to take its rightful place in the market... ;)"
*BSD are great, they are extremely solid and worthwhile systems. But they don't really offer any benefit over linux that is substantial enough to justify dividing the efforts of the open source world. People CLAIM they are more stable and secure but how do you compare systems that can both be secured properly and never crash? Linux simply has a lot more polish at this point and a lot more active development. *BSD could do equally well if it were given all that polish but at this point it is a waste of effort to reinvent the wheel. We already have a rock solid *nix system that is also polished enough to for Desktop use and flexible enough to power wristwatches.
It doesn't matter, Patent protection = Additional Permission. If there are any additional requirements to distribute the software beyond the terms of the GPL then the GPL denies the right to distribute under the GPL.
"YOU CANNOT LOCK IDEAS UP WITH COPYIRGHT!!!!"
By definition you can not copyright anything other than idea.
Actually I would think DHCP being common practice among ISPs would muddy the issue more than private nets and proxies.
While the odds would be slim, seeing the same IP wouldn't mean the same person was behind it. This is the same reason that banning IP's is bad practice.
no doubt, 98% sounds a little low to me. We should probably be debating the numbers of 9's for that particular number.
I agree entirely with the rest of your post but I'll comment on this part:
'"Don't kill people, or we'll kill you." Doesn't it strike you as being hypocritical to have a death penalty when there's a law against killing people?'
You could say the same about imprisonment. Doesn't it strike you as being hypocritical to force people into cages at gunpoint when there are laws against kidnapping and aggravated assault?
If you have anarchy, everyone who is strong enough has the right to kill or imprison. That right is more natural and 'god given' than any of the more noble pretend rights we wrote into our constitution. We have societies and government to allow us to collectively band together and form a force that we transfer some of our individual rights to. This is born of the fear that there are those stronger than you who will dominate you in ways that are worse than the collective authority's abuse of power.
'Not to mention that in our system it actually costs more to kill someone than to keep them in prison for life.'
You are right. Either we have a death penalty or not. If we are going to have a death penalty then we need to grow some balls and kill the prisoners. It shouldn't cost any more to house the prisoners during the appeals process than it does to house any other prisoner. The current method of execution is both overpriced and more cruel than anything else we could have devised. It is ridiculous to nitpick over the cruelty of a method of execution, as long as torture is not being employed. Extended imprisonment is far more cruel than feeling a few moments of physical pain. Put a razor sharp blade on a 20 ton hydraulic press and you will have a 100% success rate in first cut be-headings. If honest prices are to be had the machine will cost less than $5,000/ea and the price to run it is just a few dollars per execution.
None of that is to say that there should or should not be a death penalty, just logistics around the issue. Personally I do not believe in a deity or magical afterlife and I do not hold any form of life innately more sacred than another. It seems reasonable to me to pull the weeds from the garden that are draining the life from the flowers. If the people are the flowers and weeds than I would rather concentrate on working toward a garden that suits my vision than disputing the need to pull weeds rather than transplant them to another garden.
I hope not. The whole point of AC posting is that the admins don't know whether the person who posted that message really moderated or not. If actions are taken in this case then it opens the window for AC's to hurt moderators simply by claiming they are the moderator and they mod'd like they did for 'insert bad reason here'.
"So let me get this straight, you see the biggest story on domestic terrorism in five years, and you think it's funny?"
Yes I look upon this pathetic excuse for a terrorist act and agree that it is the biggest incident of domestic terrorism in five years the second largest in the past fifteen years, third largest in decades.
With that in mind I look at the 'war on terror' we wage that has caused more terror and death than the United States has seen as a result of domestic terror. Yes, I find the situation so sad that it transcends sadness and can only be comprehended as a joke.
IANAL nor do I claim any special knowledge on the topic. I do know the discussion has come up on Slashdot before and it appeared the general consensus among the IAAL's was that if you make a true statement and that statement causes $50,000 in damages to me then you are open to a lawsuit from me. The statement being true probably makes you safe but my understanding is that in the US a judge decides the point rather than a law that explicitly protects those making true statements.
Remember the flying alien thing that held Anakin skywalker and his mother as slaves? For some reason when I read this guys replys the narration in my head is in the aliens voice.
I got partway through the answers before it became blatantly obvious that everything this guy says is coming straight from a Microsoft PR perspective.
"I think the core of your question is about giving away Windows licenses for free. We love developers, period. We're also not about to give away Windows client licenses."
The question had nothing to do with windows client licenses. The question had to do with running internet explorer outside of a windows client license. Failing to block people from using IE on other platforms without requiring them to purchase windows is a far cry from giving away free copies of windows.
Had he not been a PR bot he could have answered the question by simply stating "Yes, we intentionally blocked IE from running on wine by requiring WGA Validation. We did this because we want a windows client license to be prerequisite to running the browser."
Since this is a US forum and a US TLD I will make the assumption that the story poster is in the US. In the US truth is not a guarantee of immunity from slander suits. In most other nations the slander being truthful guantees you will win the case but not here. In the US you can still be nailed if the slander resulted in damages, even if what you said is provably true.
There were no stolen goods involved, you can't steal an idea or abstract expression. It is impossible.
"You think that because the crime was committed on computers, he should spend five months without a computer?"
Although a few bought and paid for politicians have made this technically a crime, it certainly shouldn't be a crime. This belongs in civil courts.
The article is very interesting. I was under the impression that oil was only known to result from decomposing organisms.
Always happy to be proven wrong when it is educational.
Since oil on a distant planet would be proof of life they had better take a closer look.
"Why do you want to make sure that only the most fallible machine in the world can read the ballots?"
Because if you have a machine processing the ballots then you have simply moved the problem from one computer to another. Instead of a hack on the voting machines you now have to worry about a hack that impacts the tally machines.
I agree with paper elections. I also think that digital machines can have a place in elections. You make your choices on a computer, the computer prints out the ballot. The ballot is plain english and human readable. Nothing computer readable, not even a barcode.
This way you don't have to worry about people not being able to figure out how to punch the ballot, but there is no way a computer can rig an election.
Sorry but when I hear this conjecture about might have been a nuke, might not have been all that appears in my mind are Iraqi nuke tubes that have nothing to do with nukes at all.
"Fit people have an advantage in life."
School is not life nor a simulation thereof. A big problem with the education system today is the life simulation thing is being done too much when school should be 100% education. Fit people have no advantage when it comes to education. Actually being overly fit may conflict with intellectual persuits. Behind every stereotype (like the dumb jock) there is an element of truth.
"Boys have a penis and girls have a vagina. If you see other people's hoo-hoo's, it's not a big deal. If you work out, you will see other naked humans."
So you don't value privacy. I do. The last thing I care to see before and after an already unpleasant experience is your nasty ass naked.
"Walking around, moving stuff, dating, whatever. It's not wrong to encourage excercise - and believe me, I hated it in school."
Most day to day tasks do not require buffing up at all and doing so is not an advantage. For instance, unless you are grossly overweight you can handle the walking required in day to day life just as well as a marathon runner. I wouldn't call myself 'fit' these days but walking a few miles is not exactly a chore. Heavy lifting is not exactly something that most of us need to do on a regular basis and can be left to the fit people who work overly physical jobs. And of course being fit does not give you an advantage for non-physical jobs.
As for dating, that depends on who you want to date. If your tastes cause you to prefer athletic types of the opposite sex. Even if you do, in adult life, wealth is a far bigger advantage when it comes time to get laid.
"Maybe spamhaus.cuisinewiki.com doesn't appeal to them."
lol the point is a domain costs about $5 to register and spamhaus isn't exactly a great or intuitive name anyway. I think they should register spamhaus2.org just to mock the court. If MS can mock the courts than surely spamhaus can as well.
First, you mod posts according to the post, not the sig. Second the hosting account expired on that site, the ads aren't mine. I just haven't bothered to update my sig in awhile.
Nobody seemed to be especially interested in the cooking site.
"I doubt many grants are issued because of newspaper articles."
You win grants the same way you win anything else; in a popularity contest. The more popular the research you are doing is, the better your chances are of getting it funded. One way to get your area popular is to get press coverage.
Did you think they were awarded based on merit or something? On paper they are. Just like everything else in life, the real story never matches the paper.
"Seriously, why do you have to resort to ridiculous movie-plot science in an attempt to understand this?"
Because these scientists ARE conducting research that potentially results lives being saved by having humans breath poisonous gas? The dramatic parts were already there, I didn't invent them. Considering how dangerous this is it wouldn't suprise me if they really did need some favorable press to get research grants.
Symantec has an extremely hefty investment in the windows platform. Symantec has put out fud here and there about open source security precisely because the software is too secure. If an alternative to windows were to gain substantial market share that would mean lost marketshare for Symantec since their AV products wouldn't be needed, used, or even available on that platform.
At the same time Symantec wants all that juicy system internal information that microsoft won't share or charges them out the arse for now.
Why don't they just register another domain? I've got a few unrelated but functional domains they can borrow.
"The rich are paying their fair share, and then some, and then some more."
You reveal your income bracket here. The rest of your post is either condescension (you aren't entitled to any sonny) or meaningless statistics taken out of context and used for propaganda.
"Gas prices are down to near their normal inflation-adjusted levels."
Compared to when? The gas crunch? 5 years ago gas was about $1.50/gallon. Now gas is about $3/gallon. Your math seems a bit skewed to me. If you are claiming that inflation rates are so high that the dollar is worth half what it was 5 years ago then our economy is in a very sad state indeed.
"We are at 4.6% unemployment, which is pretty close to what economists consider full employment"
Sounds great. Of course it is meaningless. The biggest single glaring fact that makes your unemployment statistic worthless is that it only considers people who are actually drawing unemployment benefits. That is a small fraction of the unemployed. It also considers part-time and minimum wage (or near minimum) workers employed.
"At the same time, the share of national income earned by the top 1% has fallen from 21% under Clinton to 19% under Bush."
How about the top 5%? How about the top 10%? This is why statistics are useless for anything but propaganda. No matter what your viewpoint you can pick the numbers that suit your position.
"Most of what you think you know about the economy from listening to the mainstream media is a crock of shit."
The media? Who needs to look to the media to find out about the economy? Look to the people. Your average citizen is now making $25,000 or less and has no benefits. The reason they have no benefits is that almost all corporations have eliminated full-time positions among non-management workers. If you look at the workers filling positions typically held by teens you will now find adults working those jobs. A single adult in this position is forced to live with family or a roommate. In a marriage both the husband and wife must work just to keep up and they are building a landlord equity instead of themselves. Remember when the economy was healthy and one individual could work hard and support a house and car, plus put away something to take care of their family? Now both a husband and wife must work and they must save to be able to afford insurance, forget building to the future.
There is nothing fine about the economy if you are looking at it from the position of most of the working citizens instead of the position of the most successful citizens.