Suppose I bought a computer back in 1998, and that I use it for occasional web browsing. It's not the fastest computer, but it suits that particular need well.
Now, suppose I want to make sure this computer is as secure as possible. It has Windows 98 SE on it. Will I be able to install Windows XP on the computer? Will I be able to install it for free, and legally, too?
This is one of the reasons I use Debian GNU\Linux unstable. I can make sure that my system is up-to-date, for free, and it will likely perform even better than it did before I updated it. And since my data is stored on a separate/home partition, I can upgrade all of the programs on it with a single command without any downtime.
In any case, I don't think anybody deserves to get burned, unless maybe they post their IP address on the Web and invite some 1337 kiddies to have a go at it.
Flamebait? Too bad I don't have modpoints, or else I'd have moderated the parent 'Informative'.
I like OpenOffice a lot, but I always fire up Abiword or Gnumeric when I need to look at a document or a spreadsheet because they are both very fast. Maybe OpenOffice isn't slow, but the load time seems to drag on forever in comparison with Abiword or Gnumeric.
I agree; it seems very difficult to determine who is at fault. It won't be the stockholders, though. Can you imagine the effects on investment if stockholders might be held responsible for a company's wrongdoings? The cigarette companies, among others, would be very hard hit if limited liability protection were removed.
Also, IANAL, but would spyware that's already been developed and installed be exempt from the law as it can't apply ex post facto? I think you'd have to prove that the company developing the spyware intended for it to be installed after the law was passed.
And, even if the law were 100% effective against new spyware, it would take a very long time to remove all the spyware that's already been installed.
Oh, no. I'm not falling for that! Don't you know that '1984' is subtly changed with each printing, so that now the text is radically different? Not to mention that the latest edition has been bugged, so that they can track the people who read it?? (I read about it at Wikipedia, so I know it's true.)
The best way to make sure you are reading the original is to download the text and check the MD5 checksum.;)
Does earning more necessarily make us happier? How do you explain the observed increase in the rates of depression among people in industrialized nations? (Disclaimer: study is from 1989.)
Perhaps you enjoy eating more, buying more, and living longer than your ancestors. However, I may not choose the same metric as you. Perhaps I would like to work less time, spend less money, and spend more time with my family and friends. Please don't assume that we share the same values.
I agree with you that things tend to get better. However, this is only because some people have actively fought to improve the conditions around them. Just like your bedroom, if you do not put in the effort to keep it clean, it will become dirty.
Of course, this is one option. Another option is to complain about it enough that the company changes its policies as a result.
It looks like this is what happened here, and I think everyone is better off for it. The company benefits by not going out of business just because a single decision was rejected by a significant number of its users, and the users benefit from the company staying in business and continuing to produce the product.
I have a law (the PATRIOT Act) that protects me against terrorists. No, really, it's true! The terrorists are so scared that the government is watching what they're reading that I'm free to visit any public library in the United States without the fear of the constant terrorist threat.
Life is just a popularity contest, Success the ability to perform within a framework of obedience
Just ask the candy-coated joy-cam rock bands selling shoes for venture capitalists silencing competing messages rounding off the jagged edges
---
Or, as Negativland remarked on Dispepsi:
When 7-Up has got me down, when HI-C gets me low.
---
Some political bands address the problem with image manufacturing, but you'll never hear them on the radio. Which is probably ok in a way, because most people seem to think that music ought to sound good.;)
xevil is good for a change of pace. It's a 2D shoot-'em-up with cool characters (ninja, robot, hero, etc.), good weapons (napalm grenades, pistols, machine guns, flame throwers, frog gun, etc.), and unusual items (caffeine, PCP, crack pipes, etc.).
The premise of the game is that you've just died and gone to hell, and now you must compete in this killfest to determine your fate in hell.
We must be careful in determining who is contributing and who is consuming on the economic level.
I read in "Los Supermachos" the other day of a man who wanted to have a lot of money, but did not want to work for it. His friend asked, "But how do you expect to have lots of money and not work for it?" The man replied, "There are many people who have lots of money but do not work."
Certainly, the latest rape in $city is the fault of the man who perpetrated it. However, is not a man a product of his upbringing in the slightest?
I agree that it would probably be wrong to suggest that a particular rape is the consequence of the perp's upbringing. I further propose that it is probably wrong to suggest that his upbringing had absolutely nothing to do with it.
C'mon, mods! Where's the (+1, Funny) for the Lionel Hutz reference? To which I reply, "Facts are meaningless. Facts can be used to prove anything that's even remotely true."
Ok, I agree with this point: people didn't necessarily upgrade to Windows XP because of these new features, but, once they upgraded, they were happy to find them.
I should note, though, that the examples you cited (CD-burning and XP driver backoff) don't seem to me to be user-land applications, like Word or IE. I was thinking that you meant that people liked that Microsoft has inextricably (and unnaturally) linked the browser with the kernel.
Are you suggesting that "so many people upgraded to XP" because it absorbed user-land applications into the operating system? I suspect that very few people upgraded because of a perceived efficiency gain with respect to such applications.
Do we have statistics about the number of users who upgraded to XP, as opposed to the number of users who are now using XP (likely because it came with their shiny new computer)?
Slashdot Mirror
Deserve to get burned?
/home partition, I can upgrade all of the programs on it with a single command without any downtime.
Suppose I bought a computer back in 1998, and that I use it for occasional web browsing. It's not the fastest computer, but it suits that particular need well.
Now, suppose I want to make sure this computer is as secure as possible. It has Windows 98 SE on it. Will I be able to install Windows XP on the computer? Will I be able to install it for free, and legally, too?
This is one of the reasons I use Debian GNU\Linux unstable. I can make sure that my system is up-to-date, for free, and it will likely perform even better than it did before I updated it. And since my data is stored on a separate
In any case, I don't think anybody deserves to get burned, unless maybe they post their IP address on the Web and invite some 1337 kiddies to have a go at it.
Flamebait? Too bad I don't have modpoints, or else I'd have moderated the parent 'Informative'.
I like OpenOffice a lot, but I always fire up Abiword or Gnumeric when I need to look at a document or a spreadsheet because they are both very fast. Maybe OpenOffice isn't slow, but the load time seems to drag on forever in comparison with Abiword or Gnumeric.
"Fox News Channel" shows just news
Fox News Channel has started showing news?! Did Rupert Murdoch die last night or something?
The massacre at My Lai probably helped to sustain the fable as well.
I agree; it seems very difficult to determine who is at fault. It won't be the stockholders, though. Can you imagine the effects on investment if stockholders might be held responsible for a company's wrongdoings? The cigarette companies, among others, would be very hard hit if limited liability protection were removed.
Also, IANAL, but would spyware that's already been developed and installed be exempt from the law as it can't apply ex post facto? I think you'd have to prove that the company developing the spyware intended for it to be installed after the law was passed.
And, even if the law were 100% effective against new spyware, it would take a very long time to remove all the spyware that's already been installed.
I'll be ready! ;)
(Score: -1, Vegan Troll)
Your response does nothing to bolster the parent's statement that 'meat proteins' are unavoidable.
In fact, your post agrees with mine that it is possible to 'substitute'. Did you intend this response for another post?
Kudos to you for knowing where your food comes from.
I admire your position on avoiding dependence on non-critical substances; I'm the same way.
I was wondering, though: why do you think 'meat proteins' are unavoidable?
Oh, no. I'm not falling for that! Don't you know that '1984' is subtly changed with each printing, so that now the text is radically different? Not to mention that the latest edition has been bugged, so that they can track the people who read it?? (I read about it at Wikipedia, so I know it's true.)
;)
The best way to make sure you are reading the original is to download the text and check the MD5 checksum.
Insightful? Would wondering if Val Kilmer might steal her research from her get me a '+1, Informative' moderation?
Or, for a more partisan spin, take this quiz.
Perhaps you enjoy eating more, buying more, and living longer than your ancestors. However, I may not choose the same metric as you. Perhaps I would like to work less time, spend less money, and spend more time with my family and friends. Please don't assume that we share the same values.
I agree with you that things tend to get better. However, this is only because some people have actively fought to improve the conditions around them. Just like your bedroom, if you do not put in the effort to keep it clean, it will become dirty.
Of course, this is one option. Another option is to complain about it enough that the company changes its policies as a result.
It looks like this is what happened here, and I think everyone is better off for it. The company benefits by not going out of business just because a single decision was rejected by a significant number of its users, and the users benefit from the company staying in business and continuing to produce the product.
What's wrong with complaining??
But my mom laughed?! ;)
People with Extra-Terrestrial Appetites?
(For the record, I'm a vegan and a PETA supporter...the joke wrote itself, I just posted it.)
I have a law (the PATRIOT Act) that protects me against terrorists. No, really, it's true! The terrorists are so scared that the government is watching what they're reading that I'm free to visit any public library in the United States without the fear of the constant terrorist threat.
As Progandhi sang:
;)
Life is just a popularity
contest, Success the ability
to perform within a framework
of obedience
Just ask the candy-coated joy-cam rock bands
selling shoes for venture capitalists
silencing competing messages
rounding off the jagged edges
---
Or, as Negativland remarked on Dispepsi:
When 7-Up has got me down,
when HI-C gets me low.
---
Some political bands address the problem with image manufacturing, but you'll never hear them on the radio. Which is probably ok in a way, because most people seem to think that music ought to sound good.
xevil is good for a change of pace. It's a 2D shoot-'em-up with cool characters (ninja, robot, hero, etc.), good weapons (napalm grenades, pistols, machine guns, flame throwers, frog gun, etc.), and unusual items (caffeine, PCP, crack pipes, etc.).
The premise of the game is that you've just died and gone to hell, and now you must compete in this killfest to determine your fate in hell.
Thank you very much for defending my freedom. If I may be so bold as to ask, though, how does 'thousands of men dodging bullets' preserve my freedom?
'Congress, as a whole, just doesn't get it at all.'
Or maybe they get it perfectly. Are you familiar with the phrase, 'Never attribute to malice that which can be attributed to stupidity'?
Well, if they're not stupid (which is debatable)...
Great! Now that the laws have been introduced, let's enforce them!
Oops. As Tom Waits said, "The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away."
For another seemingly intractable problem with capatilism, see 'Planned obsolescence'.
We must be careful in determining who is contributing and who is consuming on the economic level.
I read in "Los Supermachos" the other day of a man who wanted to have a lot of money, but did not want to work for it. His friend asked, "But how do you expect to have lots of money and not work for it?" The man replied, "There are many people who have lots of money but do not work."
Certainly, the latest rape in $city is the fault of the man who perpetrated it. However, is not a man a product of his upbringing in the slightest?
I agree that it would probably be wrong to suggest that a particular rape is the consequence of the perp's upbringing. I further propose that it is probably wrong to suggest that his upbringing had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Hmmm, do you object to a strip-search? What exactly are you trying to hide? ;)
C'mon, mods! Where's the (+1, Funny) for the Lionel Hutz reference? To which I reply, "Facts are meaningless. Facts can be used to prove anything that's even remotely true."
Ok, I agree with this point: people didn't necessarily upgrade to Windows XP because of these new features, but, once they upgraded, they were happy to find them.
I should note, though, that the examples you cited (CD-burning and XP driver backoff) don't seem to me to be user-land applications, like Word or IE. I was thinking that you meant that people liked that Microsoft has inextricably (and unnaturally) linked the browser with the kernel.
Are you suggesting that "so many people upgraded to XP" because it absorbed user-land applications into the operating system? I suspect that very few people upgraded because of a perceived efficiency gain with respect to such applications.
Do we have statistics about the number of users who upgraded to XP, as opposed to the number of users who are now using XP (likely because it came with their shiny new computer)?