I was a windows and IE loving Web Developer when I first saw a Beta of OS X. I finally gave into my employers insistence that I use a Mac cause I liked the idea of improving my Unix skills which were barely adequate for deploying code releases. Within 2 years I had strong Unix/Linux skills and had quadrupled my salary. I have continued to expand my knowledge and reap the benefits of it. Does that make me pretentious?
I think the news worthy part of this is that installing Linux has become so mainstream that publications like Popular Mechanics is now instructing its readers on how to do it. That is pretty amazing.
Detractors can say what they want about the traction that Linux is gaining and how Vista "out sells" it. However, it is undeniable that the public is showing an increasing interest in getting to use Linux.
Shipit is a demonstration of what FLOSS is all about. Shipit demonstrates that there is a community that anyone is welcome to join where you are valued as a person rather than a revenue stream.
When you join the Linux community you find passionate people who want to see you learn to use your hidden potential. You are not corralled into doing things the way the MSFT or AAPL think you should do them. You are encouraged to customize the devices you interact with daily so that they meet your needs and preferences. Nothing is demanded in return, because we find that most of the people we help soon have the skills to help others. That is how Free/Libre and Open Source Software continues to grow. It is something that no corporation can stop.
Shipit is wonderful because it extends this culture to those who otherwise may not have taken notice of it.
Unfortunately your 1 simple rule isn't so simple because people are so used to using apostrophes in contractions and possessives. The way I finally remembered how to keep them straight after 28 years was to remember that possessive can be expressed without an apostrophe. As in the word "whose". So, I use this short dialog to demonstrate to others.
Throw in Eminent Domain (notice: "or in some cases, economic development") and you realize that not only do you lease land from the government, but the terms of the lease are not binding.
Without personal property rights, there is no freedom. The government claims rights to your property, your money, and your work/effort/skills. What part of that allows for freedom?
It's not a botnet, but if they hadn't inappropriately used that buzz word, would we be talking about it?
It's frustrating the way our terminology continues to get diluted to where everything becomes ambiguous because you must assume that the majority of the people out there don't know the meanings of the words.
A good off topic example is "stereotype, bigotry, and racism" through related, these three are distinct but everything is now just rolled up into racism. This makes it difficult to express that a person holds the particularly nasty belief that a certain race is genetically inferior to others.
You do realize that oil companies don't pay taxes don't you? Who does, you ask? The customers, employees, and investors. People pay taxes. No matter how the politicians spin it, all taxes are paid with money taken from people.
When taxes are increased to punish evil oil companies, here is what happens: 1. The customers pay more for the product. 2. The companies' budgets for cost of living raises, new jobs, etc. goes down. 3. The investors (which includes virtually every single school teacher, police officer, and responsibly diversified person) looses value in their investments, pensions, and retirement accounts.
The problem is not "too low of taxes". The problem is the way taxes are disguised in the first place. How should tax liability be accessed? Based on consumption. Plain. Simple. Fair.
Any tax system that can't be read in about an hour and understood by the least of its subjects is oppressive and inevitably corrupt. If you understood the tax system you would storm Washington with torches and pitch forks.
Barcode argument solved... Sorry, barcodes are a horrible idea, as explained by plover (150551). The readable and scannable problem was solved 52 years ago http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MICR by the banking industry. Have you ever written a check/cheque?
Receipt argument solved... Voting machines should have printers in them that print 2 check-like vouchers. One is a receipt, the other is a ballot that the voter inserts into a scanning lockbox on his/her way out. The voting machine isn't even on a network, and doesn't count votes. It would do you no good to hack it. The worse you could do is make it start printing vouchers that would cause people to say, "this one is out of order."
Cancel/Void argument solved... The way you "cancel" a vote is by giving the goofed-up printed voucher to the attendee and watch them shred it instead of putting it in the scanning lockbox. The attendee then gives you a new card (just like the one currently used) to put in the voting machine and print a new voucher. There is no more opportunity for fraud here than in the original paper ballot system.
This paragraph optional... You could go so far as to issue each ballot (not voter) a serial number. The results would be reported as both tally numbers and a "tally code" for each candidate. An algorithm could be used to see if the tally code contained both the number of votes reported and any ballot's serial number. The algorithm would be made public so geeks could test by hand, or voters could use any number of "calculators" that would pop up on the internet. It sounds complex, but its really as simple as finger binary. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_binary
And, if you don't like it, I say "finger binary 132" to you.;-)
I follow the dialog, but cannot spot a person with no religion. Was that the point?
Here is an analogy to your dialog:
Racist: People of that race are genetically inferior to this other race. (BTW, this is the true definition of racism. What most people call racism is actually bigotry.)
Anti-Racist: These race issues infuriate me.
Racist: Oh well, I'm ignorant and nothing will ever change me.
Anti-Racist: Oh yeah, well I don't believe in race.
Racist: What ever dude, you have a race.
Anti-Racist: No, race doesn't exist. I have no race.
Racist: Yeah, good luck with that.
-- Bonus -- Here is a simple "binary American racism test": True or False, Oprah Winfrey is genetically inferior to Paris Hilton? If the answer is false, the respondent is not a racist. However, they may be a bigot. Most people have a degree of bigotry. The people with a high degree of bigotry are incorrectly labeled racists. The meaning has been convoluted to the point where dictionaries have to reflect it.
What part of what Xtravar (725372) said made you post this sophomoric response?
If you want to create an elementary playground metaphor, try something like: Well, John Smith, no, I'm sorry I cannot force your classmates to be your friend. It's true that Jimmy was mean to Sally. However, he apologized her and the children chose to forgive him. They seem to feel that your words are not genuine, and you must regain their trust. Therefore, I will not make Billy share his pudding cup like he used to, or make Suze write you love notes like she used to, or make Ryan continue to call you his BFF. You have to deal with the consequences of your actions. But remember, though you cannot control others you are in control of your future. With a little hard work and honesty you can over come this and anything else that the future holds.
Of course, my scenario assumes that I don't live in the same sick society you describe. My scenario works with offenses more like shoving, hitting, spitting, throwing toys, etc. But, we each choose to raise our children differently I guess.
I am consistently amazed by the rights that people, particularly Americans since this is where I reside, think they have. It used to amuse me. Then it saddened me. Now it frightens me to see the "false rights" that people want defended. They include, but certainly are not limited to: 1. Freedom from being offended. - I've actually heard people who think that offending a person audibly is equally punishable as assaulting a person physically. When I tried to argue this idea, they kept yelling "It's the same thing. It's the same thing. It's the same F---ing thing." 2. Freedom _from_, not _of_, religion. - It's arguable (as are all things regarding religion http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/religion#Usage_notes ), but everyone has a religion. (Religion as in a person's believe _regarding_, not necessarily in, deities.) So, just because you are an atheist, you don't have a right to total isolation from religion. Although I sympathize at how annoyed you must be. 3. Constitutional right to vote. - This was even spoke of recently by Barack Obama. I'm disturbed to see how many people think the U.S. Constitution affords them a right to vote. The truth is, the Federal Government only restricts the criteria that can be used for denying a person the privilege of voting. Your state's constitution may protect additional rights, but that is rarely ever spoken of. I think that it would increase voter turn out if we properly described voting as a privilege instead of a right. 4. The right to drive an automobile. - This is certainly a privilege, not a right. It is also a privilege that is too freely granted, and too infrequently denied or revoked.
Please feel free to contribute to the list. I guess you have the _right_ to argue with it too, but why would you want to?;-)
[quote]ATI lost me as a customer with their many years of zero Linux support and not to mention they still don't support FreeBSD. I won't use them except for some integrated server boards where it doesn't matter.[/quote]
No forgiveness for ATI. I think we need to stay loyal to the companies that first showed us respect and show us the most respect today. Intel has poured resources into Linux and Xorg. When we are able to of load all HD video decoding from our CPUs to our GPUs, it will be Intel that makes that possible. For years ATI and nVidia have taunted the MythTV community with $25 512MB video cards that could easily handle HD video if only the manufactures would support us. This is a grievance of which I can't easily let go.
"Copying the answer is cheating" You are correct. However, the answers can be found via Google anyway. It is impossible to isolate students from any ability to circumvent learning. This tool, like any other tool, can be used in both beneficial and detrimental ways.
"there should be rules that..." This is very dangerous. Excessive policies, "zero tolerance", and rigid rules are only beneficial in situations where you know your faculty is too incompetent to be trusted with decision making. The greatest thing about the Andy Griffith Show was his amazing ability to weigh situations and make the decision that was best for the conflict. No preconceived policy could ever out perform brilliant decision making. The schools need to be able to trust the decision making ability of the faculty, and not make rules/policy to preempt them. If such rules are needed, the problem is not the lack of rules, but the hiring of incompetent instructors. Then either the school, or the people paying for the school, need to resolve that issue.
When my wife was in university she had to take a "final exam" 2 hours after having a life threatening cancerous tumor removed due to a short sighted "zero tolerance" policy. The anesthesia hadn't even worn off yet. As a result, she received the only B grade of her otherwise A career.
Another disaster of DRM is the power required to do all the decryption. Al Gore should go after the media industry for the waste of electricity and subsequent carbon foot print. While he's at it... Why not pressure HD-DVD hardware makers to release the (non-encryption related) specs of the machines on the market so they can be turned into MythTVs and other devices?
Then he can attack the printer manufacturers for adopting a printer & and ink/toner pricing plan that encourages the consumers to through away printers because it's cheaper to buy a new one than to refill it.
Intel has been contributing massive resources to X.org and their adoption in the FLOSS community has benefited. AMD has been making progress in openness also, but I don't know if it is enough. All of the coolest advances are being done because of the facility of freedom. If you want to sell your product you must sell with it the freedom to do amazing things in the future.
Manufacturing companies are starting to take note of this. Their implementation of this principle can be directed correlated with their success. Hopefully, AMD will be competitive in openness.
Your entire security chain is broken when you introduce a microsoft product. I don't allow windows machines on my network. When they are detected, they are quarantined. You are crazy if you let a microsoft machine have access to both your network and the outside world.
What a waste of time. I just studied the entire site you linked to and there was nothing to see. It's to early to read about math. I'm looking for my Monday AM inspiration.
The filament is most likely to do its separation during the high speed increase in temperature that happens when turning it on. But the deterioration that leads to the separation is (under normal usage) caused by the accumulated hours of illumination rather than the number of power toggles.
The landscape erosion is caused by wind and rain. In our analogy the power toggles are the wind. The Grand Canyon would have still been carved if there was less/no wind. (No analogy is perfect, don't nit-pick it.;-)
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I was a windows and IE loving Web Developer when I first saw a Beta of OS X. I finally gave into my employers insistence that I use a Mac cause I liked the idea of improving my Unix skills which were barely adequate for deploying code releases. Within 2 years I had strong Unix/Linux skills and had quadrupled my salary. I have continued to expand my knowledge and reap the benefits of it. Does that make me pretentious?
I think the news worthy part of this is that installing Linux has become so mainstream that publications like Popular Mechanics is now instructing its readers on how to do it. That is pretty amazing.
Detractors can say what they want about the traction that Linux is gaining and how Vista "out sells" it. However, it is undeniable that the public is showing an increasing interest in getting to use Linux.
Thing is, Linux gives away more free copies in a day than Vista has since its inception. Looky, we have impressive metrics too.
Shipit is a demonstration of what FLOSS is all about. Shipit demonstrates that there is a community that anyone is welcome to join where you are valued as a person rather than a revenue stream.
When you join the Linux community you find passionate people who want to see you learn to use your hidden potential. You are not corralled into doing things the way the MSFT or AAPL think you should do them. You are encouraged to customize the devices you interact with daily so that they meet your needs and preferences. Nothing is demanded in return, because we find that most of the people we help soon have the skills to help others. That is how Free/Libre and Open Source Software continues to grow. It is something that no corporation can stop.
Shipit is wonderful because it extends this culture to those who otherwise may not have taken notice of it.
Unfortunately your 1 simple rule isn't so simple because people are so used to using apostrophes in contractions and possessives. The way I finally remembered how to keep them straight after 28 years was to remember that possessive can be expressed without an apostrophe. As in the word "whose". So, I use this short dialog to demonstrate to others.
"It's whose?"
"It's its."
That made beer come out my nose.
Throw in Eminent Domain (notice: "or in some cases, economic development") and you realize that not only do you lease land from the government, but the terms of the lease are not binding.
Without personal property rights, there is no freedom. The government claims rights to your property, your money, and your work/effort/skills. What part of that allows for freedom?
It's not a botnet, but if they hadn't inappropriately used that buzz word, would we be talking about it?
It's frustrating the way our terminology continues to get diluted to where everything becomes ambiguous because you must assume that the majority of the people out there don't know the meanings of the words.
A good off topic example is "stereotype, bigotry, and racism" through related, these three are distinct but everything is now just rolled up into racism. This makes it difficult to express that a person holds the particularly nasty belief that a certain race is genetically inferior to others.
All botnets are evil. Things like Folding@Home, Seti@Home, etc. are not botnets.
You do realize that oil companies don't pay taxes don't you? Who does, you ask? The customers, employees, and investors. People pay taxes. No matter how the politicians spin it, all taxes are paid with money taken from people.
When taxes are increased to punish evil oil companies, here is what happens:
1. The customers pay more for the product.
2. The companies' budgets for cost of living raises, new jobs, etc. goes down.
3. The investors (which includes virtually every single school teacher, police officer, and responsibly diversified person) looses value in their investments, pensions, and retirement accounts.
The problem is not "too low of taxes". The problem is the way taxes are disguised in the first place. How should tax liability be accessed? Based on consumption. Plain. Simple. Fair.
Any tax system that can't be read in about an hour and understood by the least of its subjects is oppressive and inevitably corrupt. If you understood the tax system you would storm Washington with torches and pitch forks.
Barcode argument solved...
;-)
Sorry, barcodes are a horrible idea, as explained by plover (150551). The readable and scannable problem was solved 52 years ago http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MICR by the banking industry. Have you ever written a check/cheque?
Receipt argument solved...
Voting machines should have printers in them that print 2 check-like vouchers. One is a receipt, the other is a ballot that the voter inserts into a scanning lockbox on his/her way out. The voting machine isn't even on a network, and doesn't count votes. It would do you no good to hack it. The worse you could do is make it start printing vouchers that would cause people to say, "this one is out of order."
Cancel/Void argument solved...
The way you "cancel" a vote is by giving the goofed-up printed voucher to the attendee and watch them shred it instead of putting it in the scanning lockbox. The attendee then gives you a new card (just like the one currently used) to put in the voting machine and print a new voucher. There is no more opportunity for fraud here than in the original paper ballot system.
This paragraph optional...
You could go so far as to issue each ballot (not voter) a serial number. The results would be reported as both tally numbers and a "tally code" for each candidate. An algorithm could be used to see if the tally code contained both the number of votes reported and any ballot's serial number. The algorithm would be made public so geeks could test by hand, or voters could use any number of "calculators" that would pop up on the internet. It sounds complex, but its really as simple as finger binary. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_binary
And, if you don't like it, I say "finger binary 132" to you.
It has cloaking technology? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloaking_device
I follow the dialog, but cannot spot a person with no religion. Was that the point?
Here is an analogy to your dialog:
Racist: People of that race are genetically inferior to this other race. (BTW, this is the true definition of racism. What most people call racism is actually bigotry.)
Anti-Racist: These race issues infuriate me.
Racist: Oh well, I'm ignorant and nothing will ever change me.
Anti-Racist: Oh yeah, well I don't believe in race.
Racist: What ever dude, you have a race.
Anti-Racist: No, race doesn't exist. I have no race.
Racist: Yeah, good luck with that.
-- Bonus --
Here is a simple "binary American racism test":
True or False, Oprah Winfrey is genetically inferior to Paris Hilton?
If the answer is false, the respondent is not a racist. However, they may be a bigot. Most people have a degree of bigotry. The people with a high degree of bigotry are incorrectly labeled racists. The meaning has been convoluted to the point where dictionaries have to reflect it.
What part of what Xtravar (725372) said made you post this sophomoric response?
If you want to create an elementary playground metaphor, try something like:
Well, John Smith, no, I'm sorry I cannot force your classmates to be your friend. It's true that Jimmy was mean to Sally. However, he apologized her and the children chose to forgive him. They seem to feel that your words are not genuine, and you must regain their trust. Therefore, I will not make Billy share his pudding cup like he used to, or make Suze write you love notes like she used to, or make Ryan continue to call you his BFF. You have to deal with the consequences of your actions. But remember, though you cannot control others you are in control of your future. With a little hard work and honesty you can over come this and anything else that the future holds.
Of course, my scenario assumes that I don't live in the same sick society you describe. My scenario works with offenses more like shoving, hitting, spitting, throwing toys, etc. But, we each choose to raise our children differently I guess.
I am consistently amazed by the rights that people, particularly Americans since this is where I reside, think they have. It used to amuse me. Then it saddened me. Now it frightens me to see the "false rights" that people want defended. They include, but certainly are not limited to:
;-)
1. Freedom from being offended.
- I've actually heard people who think that offending a person audibly is equally punishable as assaulting a person physically. When I tried to argue this idea, they kept yelling "It's the same thing. It's the same thing. It's the same F---ing thing."
2. Freedom _from_, not _of_, religion.
- It's arguable (as are all things regarding religion http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/religion#Usage_notes ), but everyone has a religion. (Religion as in a person's believe _regarding_, not necessarily in, deities.) So, just because you are an atheist, you don't have a right to total isolation from religion. Although I sympathize at how annoyed you must be.
3. Constitutional right to vote.
- This was even spoke of recently by Barack Obama. I'm disturbed to see how many people think the U.S. Constitution affords them a right to vote. The truth is, the Federal Government only restricts the criteria that can be used for denying a person the privilege of voting. Your state's constitution may protect additional rights, but that is rarely ever spoken of. I think that it would increase voter turn out if we properly described voting as a privilege instead of a right.
4. The right to drive an automobile.
- This is certainly a privilege, not a right. It is also a privilege that is too freely granted, and too infrequently denied or revoked.
Please feel free to contribute to the list. I guess you have the _right_ to argue with it too, but why would you want to?
[quote]ATI lost me as a customer with their many years of zero Linux support and not to mention they still don't support FreeBSD. I won't use them except for some integrated server boards where it doesn't matter.[/quote]
No forgiveness for ATI. I think we need to stay loyal to the companies that first showed us respect and show us the most respect today. Intel has poured resources into Linux and Xorg. When we are able to of load all HD video decoding from our CPUs to our GPUs, it will be Intel that makes that possible. For years ATI and nVidia have taunted the MythTV community with $25 512MB video cards that could easily handle HD video if only the manufactures would support us. This is a grievance of which I can't easily let go.
I can't catch my breath!
"Copying the answer is cheating"
You are correct. However, the answers can be found via Google anyway. It is impossible to isolate students from any ability to circumvent learning. This tool, like any other tool, can be used in both beneficial and detrimental ways.
"there should be rules that..."
This is very dangerous. Excessive policies, "zero tolerance", and rigid rules are only beneficial in situations where you know your faculty is too incompetent to be trusted with decision making. The greatest thing about the Andy Griffith Show was his amazing ability to weigh situations and make the decision that was best for the conflict. No preconceived policy could ever out perform brilliant decision making. The schools need to be able to trust the decision making ability of the faculty, and not make rules/policy to preempt them. If such rules are needed, the problem is not the lack of rules, but the hiring of incompetent instructors. Then either the school, or the people paying for the school, need to resolve that issue.
When my wife was in university she had to take a "final exam" 2 hours after having a life threatening cancerous tumor removed due to a short sighted "zero tolerance" policy. The anesthesia hadn't even worn off yet. As a result, she received the only B grade of her otherwise A career.
Another disaster of DRM is the power required to do all the decryption. Al Gore should go after the media industry for the waste of electricity and subsequent carbon foot print. While he's at it... Why not pressure HD-DVD hardware makers to release the (non-encryption related) specs of the machines on the market so they can be turned into MythTVs and other devices?
Then he can attack the printer manufacturers for adopting a printer & and ink/toner pricing plan that encourages the consumers to through away printers because it's cheaper to buy a new one than to refill it.
Intel has been contributing massive resources to X.org and their adoption in the FLOSS community has benefited. AMD has been making progress in openness also, but I don't know if it is enough. All of the coolest advances are being done because of the facility of freedom. If you want to sell your product you must sell with it the freedom to do amazing things in the future.
Manufacturing companies are starting to take note of this. Their implementation of this principle can be directed correlated with their success. Hopefully, AMD will be competitive in openness.
Your entire security chain is broken when you introduce a microsoft product. I don't allow windows machines on my network. When they are detected, they are quarantined. You are crazy if you let a microsoft machine have access to both your network and the outside world.
But, that's not always the case. See Konfabulator.
HA! A non-mod +1 to you!
What a waste of time. I just studied the entire site you linked to and there was nothing to see. It's to early to read about math. I'm looking for my Monday AM inspiration.
The filament is most likely to do its separation during the high speed increase in temperature that happens when turning it on. But the deterioration that leads to the separation is (under normal usage) caused by the accumulated hours of illumination rather than the number of power toggles.
;-)
The landscape erosion is caused by wind and rain. In our analogy the power toggles are the wind. The Grand Canyon would have still been carved if there was less/no wind. (No analogy is perfect, don't nit-pick it.