RE: Do you really want the possibility of the "public and other entities" getting stuff that isn't going to render perfectly? It could have a terrible affect on your business image.
If that were the case, then they should send out everything as PDF, not as MS-Proprietary-whatever-format that changes even when using various versions of MS-Office. Since OO creates PDF's with a single click, I think it can handle the "business image" just fine.
Selling a CD that you have copied or ripped while keeping the copy/rip is illegal and wrong. It is almost the same as stealing the music in the first place. Person A buys CD, money supports artist/label. Sells as used while keeping. Person B buys used CD rather than buying new CD- $0 goes to artist/label. Sells as used while keeping. Person C buys used CD... etc...
I typically don't buy "used" CD's, because 90% of them are from people doing something wrong and I would rather support the artists/labels for music I like. The fact that music is overpriced is a different topic.
How? Listen at store to make sure it is worth it, buy CD's, immediately rip them to 160Kbps MP3, copy the files to all my music devices I use (car, home computer, work computer, ipod), store CD in closet with all the other ones for when the next major file format comes along.
I won't buy music from anything on-line until I can get
1) Good pricing 2) NO DRM 3) No compression 4) Selection of the artists and music that I want
So far, I have not seen that happen. And it doesn't look like it is going to happen anytime soon.
RE: In the first place, I completely disagree with your 1% statement. In the second place, even if I were to accept that, it means you also believe that everyone in the state department, immigration service, etc. is in the 99%.
No, I don't believe that at all, nor did I imply that. The 1% is usually spread out everywhere. But it is difficult for the 1 to 5% to get things done their way, at times, when they are in such a tiny minority. And throwing a number like 1% is, of course, a guess. I am not as worldly as I would like to be.
RE: Or have you fallen into the mistaken belief that since you don't understand what is involved in running such an operation, it must be easy?
I don't pretend to know how to run such an organization! Nor do I underestimate the complexity of any large system. And just because the 99% are not highly critical, logical people doesn't mean they are incapable of productivity, complex tasks, creativity, etc. I hope nobody inferred otherwise by my soapbox drivel.
RE: what sorts of people are likely to end up working in the top (non-appointed) management and technical slots
I talk/interact with people near the top of many organizations. I am usually not impressed. Yes, there is a direct relation between higher management and ability for critical/logical/rational thought... but I haven't seen it be as strong a relation as perhaps you do. The majority of the most enlightened people I have encountered are not at the top of the "food chain".
RE: The bottom line is that you've just further demonstrated your own lack of rational and critical thought. If you want to consider yourself intellectually superior (which is a crock), at least try to show that you can think.
You may believe what you like. I won't try any further to convince you, otherwise. A few text messages won't tell us all that much of anything, anyway.
I have no doubt that I am, in many ways, intellectially above the vast majority of people out there. And there are quite a lot of people out there above me in similar and different ways. That doesn't mean I have a superiority complex. It is just observation. I have a long list of faults, mistakes, shortcomings, and problems; one of them is being overly pessimistic.
I apologize if I have offended you in some way or anyone watching this. It certainly wasn't my intent.
RE: It amazes me how many slashdot posters seem to assume that the rest of the world is stupid.
Well, I base my assumptions on experience. People like you and I (and many on Slashdot) are probably in the less than 1% of the population that is rational, logical, thinking, skeptical, etc... It is a scary thought that shocked me greatly as I saw more and more proof of as I got older and older. Quite depressing, actually.
I tested with Linux & Athlon 4200+ & 1 GB RAM. I can't compare to MS-Excel because I don't use MS-Windows:
OO 2.0:
load sxc: 126 sec save ods: 91 sec open ods: 106 sec
So there is definitely some validity to OO being slow when opening very, very large spreadsheets. Of course, I don't know how important that really is, since most people will rarely, if ever, try to load/save spreadsheets with over 3 million cells. I use spreadsheets all the time and even the largest one I could find only takes 4 seconds to load.
As a comparison, Gnumeric took 11 seconds to open an xls version of the same multi-million cell spreadsheet. It is apparent that work does need to be done to further optimize OpenOffice in this regards.
Seems your language skills are limited to swearing and breezing over postings without comprehending any of them... my original posting clearly states that I would never get into a car without wearing a seatbelt. Besides, if someone else causes an accident, it is their problem, not mine. If I cause it, *MY* insurance pays for it... and I have an excellent driving record, so no insurance company is losing any money on ME.
Just because I don't drink alcohol doesn't mean I should impose MY values on other people and try to make it illegal to drink. And just because I wear my seatbelt doesn't mean I should force others to do the same. It is their body, their car, and their space... and they will have to deal with the consequences. That is what freedom is about.
Do us all a favor and crawl back under the facist rock from which you came. Either that, or please leave and go start your own country where you can force your narrow views on anyone foolish or unfortunate enough to live there.
Oh I see, you are going to try the lame insurance argument. So, you can force your sensibilities on everyone else because it might affect your insurance rates.
Inotherwords... noboby should be allowed to:
1) Eat meat. 2) Eat junk food. 3) Drink alcohol. 4) Use any types of drugs. 5) Use any type of tobacco. 6) Drink anything with caffeine. 7) Ride a motorcycle. 8) Skydive. 9) Own a gun. 10) Ski. 11) Swim. 12) Marry someone that might be abusive. 13) Live anywhere there might be a hurricane, tornado, or earthquake. 14) Have children if you or your parents have any hint of a genetic disease. 15) Cross the street without wearing a helmet.
Or any of 100,000,000 other activities.
Everyone should live a life as YOU see fit- nice and safe. So, instead of freedom, you believe in fascism. Inotherwords, you are perfect, have all the answers, and if everyone just did what you thought was right everything would be fine in the world.
Life is dangerous. Live is about making choices and experiencing them. To most people, living obessed with safety and controlling other people's choices isn't living life at all.
Because it has been seen over and over and over again that once invasive infrastructure is allowed to exist, it WILL be abused. Creeping featurism.
For example, the law in Virginia requiring seat belt use is obviously a violation of civil liberties. What right does the government have to try and protect me from myself? None. The interested parties knew it wouldn't pass.... so to get it passed, it was worded that "we will never use it as a primary way to issue citations. We will never pull anyone over for not wearing a seatbelt". So people reluctantly approved it.
Fast forward several years and... SURPRISE! Now that people are used to giving up their rights it was much easier to pass the original intent of the law. So now the law was revised and the police *CAN* pull you over and ticket you for not wearing a seatbelt... even for no other reason. I would never get in a car without wearning a seatbelt, regardless of any laws... but that is not the point.
Same thing with cameras- they get pushed in place for one reason, with assurances they will "never be used for any other purpose" and then several years later... SURPRISE! They are now used for other purposes. And for each example you can think of where we KNOW the abuses, there are probably a dozen more in which the public doesn't even know there are abuses.
Then there is the effect of losing civil liberties slowly, over generations... each generation is willing to give up a little more freedom in the name of safety. Cumulatively, over many generations, the amount of freedom lost is quite staggering.
This is the "slippery slope". It is not paranoia, it is human nature.
Think about that when the governments start to collect fingerprints and DNA of non-criminals, in the name of safety and security... "but it will never be used for any other purpose". Once you give the information out, it can never be undone.
Has it occured to anyone that perhaps the interview is fake? From the quote: "the [MPAA] got too much protection" and "play movies and do software".. "Do" software ??? Does Bill Gates really talk like that? Sounds like some illiterate teenager...
RE: "More details, including a downloadable 18-page Word document describing the current development board specification"
Oh yes, I was right here to comment on that after I read the article. A company embracing Linux and building a Linux device and asking for feedback from the Linux/FOSS community and posting the information as an MS-Word file.
I am glad I am not the only one that sees the irony in that....
Exactly! This is NOT NEWS. Who gives a flying freak if some carefully crafted code crashes a certain version of Firefox. That is not a "Denial of Service" and certainly no big deal. Indeed, if Slashdot posted an article on every time some part of MS-Windows crashed, 99% of the articles would be junk.
I think it was posted by someone excited to see ANY kind of flaw in Firefox. But what I don't understand is how an article like this, with no merit, got approved to appear in front of everyone.
"Photoshopped in"? Photoshop is now a verb AND the only way to do such a thing??? How do you know it wasn't GIMP'ed in? Or OpenOffice'ed in? Or Inkscaped in?
Anyone technically literate, as you put it, would never voluntarily give their fingerprints to any government or business. Regardless of how "secure" they say it is, it WILL be obtained and used to make you a suspect in any crime or suspected crime where you have touched anything nearby. It *will* be used to obtain your identity without your consent in all kinds of creative ways.
Funny... Mandrake/Mandriva *ANY VERSION* in the last several years has worked *PERFECTLY* with *EVERY* HP printer/scanner I have tried. Running 10.2 right now, and, as usual, it autodetected the HP2210 and setup scanning, printing, and even photo card interface all automagically (just like it did in 10.1, 10.0, 9.2, 9.1, 9.0....)
"It is their conference, and they have every right to control what they will allow to be shown there. Is this news?"
No. It is business as usual. I can't believe anyone would expect otherwise!.Net is a lot more about.Lockin than about.open or.compatible or.competition.
So hardware vendors can push new machines with twice the memory, twice the CPU, twice the graphics so when you click on something it sparkles or something before opening.
So Microsoft can push upgrades to improve their revenue stream and make non-MS OS's less compatible again.
So software vendors can push upgrades to improve THEIR revenue stream.
And what about laptops? Will they have to "connect to the internet" to play movies? What about car or portable players? Are we to connect those to the internet to be spied on too?
I don't see how this is going to work.
Microsoft's response is almost comical it is so stupid. I suppose it is NO surprise that they refuse to support any type of open standards.
Voice-over-IP in an MS-Word document???? For anyone following this that doesn't know, OpenOffice can most certainly store pictures, audio, video, charts, maps, and voice in documents.
Let's see how long it takes before Mass. crumbles under the weight, FUD, and bribes of Microsoft...
The rise in gas prices has nothing to do with lack of supplies of oil. The reason is the lack of refineries at the moment because some key ones were shut down.
Technically, PDF is *NOT* proprietary, as pete6677 states. The file format is known and open. And you don't have to use ANY Adobe software to view such files if you don't want to. I have at least three non-Adobe pdf viewers that came, stock, in my Linux distro (Mandriva 10.2).
Now, unfortunately, you can add some non-standard EXTENTIONS to pdf, like DRM and encryption and certain other things that are not universally supported. But that is not typical for most "regular" texts, manuals, and forms.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry to burst your bubble, but it certainly is. We don't use anything Microsoft at work, with over 160 users, and it works out just fine.
RE: Do you really want the possibility of the "public and other entities" getting stuff that isn't going to render perfectly? It could have a terrible affect on your business image.
If that were the case, then they should send out everything as PDF, not as MS-Proprietary-whatever-format that changes even when using various versions of MS-Office. Since OO creates PDF's with a single click, I think it can handle the "business image" just fine.
Selling a CD that you have copied or ripped while keeping the copy/rip is illegal and wrong. It is almost the same as stealing the music in the first place. Person A buys CD, money supports artist/label. Sells as used while keeping. Person B buys used CD rather than buying new CD- $0 goes to artist/label. Sells as used while keeping. Person C buys used CD... etc...
I typically don't buy "used" CD's, because 90% of them are from people doing something wrong and I would rather support the artists/labels for music I like. The fact that music is overpriced is a different topic.
How? Listen at store to make sure it is worth it, buy CD's, immediately rip them to 160Kbps MP3, copy the files to all my music devices I use (car, home computer, work computer, ipod), store CD in closet with all the other ones for when the next major file format comes along.
I won't buy music from anything on-line until I can get
1) Good pricing
2) NO DRM
3) No compression
4) Selection of the artists and music that I want
So far, I have not seen that happen. And it doesn't look like it is going to happen anytime soon.
RE: In the first place, I completely disagree with your 1% statement. In the second place, even if I were to accept that, it means you also believe that everyone in the state department, immigration service, etc. is in the 99%.
/rational thought... but I haven't seen it be as strong a relation as perhaps you do. The majority of the most enlightened people I have encountered are not at the top of the "food chain".
No, I don't believe that at all, nor did I imply that. The 1% is usually spread out everywhere. But it is difficult for the 1 to 5% to get things done their way, at times, when they are in such a tiny minority. And throwing a number like 1% is, of course, a guess. I am not as worldly as I would like to be.
RE: Or have you fallen into the mistaken belief that since you don't understand what is involved in running such an operation, it must be easy?
I don't pretend to know how to run such an organization! Nor do I underestimate the complexity of any large system. And just because the 99% are not highly critical, logical people doesn't mean they are incapable of productivity, complex tasks, creativity, etc. I hope nobody inferred otherwise by my soapbox drivel.
RE: what sorts of people are likely to end up working in the top (non-appointed) management and technical slots
I talk/interact with people near the top of many organizations. I am usually not impressed. Yes, there is a direct relation between higher management and ability for critical/logical
RE: The bottom line is that you've just further demonstrated your own lack of rational and critical thought. If you want to consider yourself intellectually superior (which is a crock), at least try to show that you can think.
You may believe what you like. I won't try any further to convince you, otherwise. A few text messages won't tell us all that much of anything, anyway.
I have no doubt that I am, in many ways, intellectially above the vast majority of people out there. And there are quite a lot of people out there above me in similar and different ways. That doesn't mean I have a superiority complex. It is just observation. I have a long list of faults, mistakes, shortcomings, and problems; one of them is being overly pessimistic.
I apologize if I have offended you in some way or anyone watching this. It certainly wasn't my intent.
RE: It amazes me how many slashdot posters seem to assume that the rest of the world is stupid.
Well, I base my assumptions on experience. People like you and I (and many on Slashdot) are probably in the less than 1% of the population that is rational, logical, thinking, skeptical, etc... It is a scary thought that shocked me greatly as I saw more and more proof of as I got older and older. Quite depressing, actually.
That was my thought, exactly. It is bad enough to encode personal data on chips. But I can just see it now when the chip FAILS.
It will be IMPOSSIBLE for you to PROVE the damn passport is valid. So then what? Get denied access back into the USA? Wait for hours? Days?
And it won't stop with passports- drivers licenses are next. Followed by mass collection and abuse of biometric data.
And, of course, none of this is going to increase security or enhance safety.
I tested with Linux & Athlon 4200+ & 1 GB RAM. I can't compare to MS-Excel because I don't use MS-Windows:
OO 2.0:
load sxc: 126 sec
save ods: 91 sec
open ods: 106 sec
So there is definitely some validity to OO being slow when opening very, very large spreadsheets. Of course, I don't know how important that really is, since most people will rarely, if ever, try to load/save spreadsheets with over 3 million cells. I use spreadsheets all the time and even the largest one I could find only takes 4 seconds to load.
As a comparison, Gnumeric took 11 seconds to open an xls version of the same multi-million cell spreadsheet. It is apparent that work does need to be done to further optimize OpenOffice in this regards.
Um, right.
c le/2005/10/23/AR2005102301352.html
Perhaps you should read this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/arti
I couldn't agree more. It is called responsibility and accountability.
Seems your language skills are limited to swearing and breezing over postings without comprehending any of them... my original posting clearly states that I would never get into a car without wearing a seatbelt. Besides, if someone else causes an accident, it is their problem, not mine. If I cause it, *MY* insurance pays for it... and I have an excellent driving record, so no insurance company is losing any money on ME.
Just because I don't drink alcohol doesn't mean I should impose MY values on other people and try to make it illegal to drink. And just because I wear my seatbelt doesn't mean I should force others to do the same. It is their body, their car, and their space... and they will have to deal with the consequences. That is what freedom is about.
Do us all a favor and crawl back under the facist rock from which you came. Either that, or please leave and go start your own country where you can force your narrow views on anyone foolish or unfortunate enough to live there.
Oh I see, you are going to try the lame insurance argument. So, you can force your sensibilities on everyone else because it might affect your insurance rates.
Inotherwords... noboby should be allowed to:
1) Eat meat.
2) Eat junk food.
3) Drink alcohol.
4) Use any types of drugs.
5) Use any type of tobacco.
6) Drink anything with caffeine.
7) Ride a motorcycle.
8) Skydive.
9) Own a gun.
10) Ski.
11) Swim.
12) Marry someone that might be abusive.
13) Live anywhere there might be a hurricane, tornado, or earthquake.
14) Have children if you or your parents have any hint of a genetic disease.
15) Cross the street without wearing a helmet.
Or any of 100,000,000 other activities.
Everyone should live a life as YOU see fit- nice and safe. So, instead of freedom, you believe in fascism. Inotherwords, you are perfect, have all the answers, and if everyone just did what you thought was right everything would be fine in the world.
Life is dangerous. Live is about making choices and experiencing them. To most people, living obessed with safety and controlling other people's choices isn't living life at all.
Because it has been seen over and over and over again that once invasive infrastructure is allowed to exist, it WILL be abused. Creeping featurism.
For example, the law in Virginia requiring seat belt use is obviously a violation of civil liberties. What right does the government have to try and protect me from myself? None. The interested parties knew it wouldn't pass.... so to get it passed, it was worded that "we will never use it as a primary way to issue citations. We will never pull anyone over for not wearing a seatbelt". So people reluctantly approved it.
Fast forward several years and... SURPRISE! Now that people are used to giving up their rights it was much easier to pass the original intent of the law. So now the law was revised and the police *CAN* pull you over and ticket you for not wearing a seatbelt... even for no other reason. I would never get in a car without wearning a seatbelt, regardless of any laws... but that is not the point.
Same thing with cameras- they get pushed in place for one reason, with assurances they will "never be used for any other purpose" and then several years later... SURPRISE! They are now used for other purposes. And for each example you can think of where we KNOW the abuses, there are probably a dozen more in which the public doesn't even know there are abuses.
Then there is the effect of losing civil liberties slowly, over generations... each generation is willing to give up a little more freedom in the name of safety. Cumulatively, over many generations, the amount of freedom lost is quite staggering.
This is the "slippery slope". It is not paranoia, it is human nature.
Think about that when the governments start to collect fingerprints and DNA of non-criminals, in the name of safety and security... "but it will never be used for any other purpose". Once you give the information out, it can never be undone.
Has it occured to anyone that perhaps the interview is fake? From the quote: "the [MPAA] got too much protection" and "play movies and do software".. "Do" software ??? Does Bill Gates really talk like that? Sounds like some illiterate teenager...
RE: "More details, including a downloadable 18-page Word document describing the current development board specification"
Oh yes, I was right here to comment on that after I read the article. A company embracing Linux and building a Linux device and asking for feedback from the Linux/FOSS community and posting the information as an MS-Word file.
I am glad I am not the only one that sees the irony in that....
Exactly! This is NOT NEWS. Who gives a flying freak if some carefully crafted code crashes a certain version of Firefox. That is not a "Denial of Service" and certainly no big deal. Indeed, if Slashdot posted an article on every time some part of MS-Windows crashed, 99% of the articles would be junk.
I think it was posted by someone excited to see ANY kind of flaw in Firefox. But what I don't understand is how an article like this, with no merit, got approved to appear in front of everyone.
"Photoshopped in"? Photoshop is now a verb AND the only way to do such a thing??? How do you know it wasn't GIMP'ed in? Or OpenOffice'ed in? Or Inkscaped in?
Anyone technically literate, as you put it, would never voluntarily give their fingerprints to any government or business. Regardless of how "secure" they say it is, it WILL be obtained and used to make you a suspect in any crime or suspected crime where you have touched anything nearby. It *will* be used to obtain your identity without your consent in all kinds of creative ways.
Funny... Mandrake/Mandriva *ANY VERSION* in the last several years has worked *PERFECTLY* with *EVERY* HP printer/scanner I have tried. Running 10.2 right now, and, as usual, it autodetected the HP2210 and setup scanning, printing, and even photo card interface all automagically (just like it did in 10.1, 10.0, 9.2, 9.1, 9.0....)
Seems like experience will vary, yes?
"It is their conference, and they have every right to control what they will allow to be shown there. Is this news?"
.Net is a lot more about .Lockin than about .open or .compatible or .competition.
No. It is business as usual. I can't believe anyone would expect otherwise!
de Icaza better duck from flying chairs.....
"Why have Vista?"
So hardware vendors can push new machines with twice the memory, twice the CPU, twice the graphics so when you click on something it sparkles or something before opening.
So Microsoft can push upgrades to improve their revenue stream and make non-MS OS's less compatible again.
So software vendors can push upgrades to improve THEIR revenue stream.
Nothing new to see here....
And what about laptops? Will they have to "connect to the internet" to play movies? What about car or portable players? Are we to connect those to the internet to be spied on too? I don't see how this is going to work.
Microsoft's response is almost comical it is so stupid. I suppose it is NO surprise that they refuse to support any type of open standards.
Voice-over-IP in an MS-Word document???? For anyone following this that doesn't know, OpenOffice can most certainly store pictures, audio, video, charts, maps, and voice in documents. Let's see how long it takes before Mass. crumbles under the weight, FUD, and bribes of Microsoft...
The rise in gas prices has nothing to do with lack of supplies of oil. The reason is the lack of refineries at the moment because some key ones were shut down.
Technically, PDF is *NOT* proprietary, as pete6677 states. The file format is known and open. And you don't have to use ANY Adobe software to view such files if you don't want to. I have at least three non-Adobe pdf viewers that came, stock, in my Linux distro (Mandriva 10.2).
Now, unfortunately, you can add some non-standard EXTENTIONS to pdf, like DRM and encryption and certain other things that are not universally supported. But that is not typical for most "regular" texts, manuals, and forms.
"Hitachi said the new models would be the first on the market able to simultaneously record two high-definition programs"
WRONG! the HD-TiVo can record two hi-def programs at the same time, even while playing one back, and has been doing it for over a year now....