Yeah, only one problem. The site mirrors openoffice...Guess what. It probably doesn't have much money. IMHO, this is BSA's Microsoft-fueled tactics. Target the little guys with lawsuits, commit perjury...and get away with it because the little guys can't afford as many lawyers as you have. Of course, this would never happen in a democratic society.
So, do you think that people are worth more than software?;)
Honestly, software should never be more valued than the people using/maintaining it. It will take maybe 50 years to make a system that can maintain itself, without outside intervention. That should not be our goal anyway, because it eliminates creativity, invention, and new ideas (who ever heard of a machine that could come up with new concepts?)
You know, I've often wondered why they haven't developed the ability to digitally transfer files from computer to minidisc, and minidisc to computer (i.e. putting mp3s on minidisc without having to press the record button). If they could do that, I would buy a minidisc player in a second. I love the players themselves, much more than HD based mp3 players, and I love the ability to pop out, popin minidiscs. If someone developed a minidisc player that was affordable that you could play mp3, or maybe even ogg, and connect to the computer....that would rock.
Is the medium of the minidisc what keeps it from being able to store digital files? I don't know much about the structure of minidisc storage. Still, I think it would be a rad idea.
Seriously, when you make music, typically you want it to be your life, not just a hobby. If you want to make money doing it, and you're good, you should be able to. Which do you value more? The music musicians make? Or the papers lawyers shuffle around endlessly?
One could say Lawyers put more effort into it. However, I don't think anyone can say that making good music is easy. It's just one of those things that are subjective. Music is something that only a few can make a living doing.
Gah, this sounds like more hassle than it's worth. If you are working in a corporate LAN, why would you want to restrict access to files, and restrict what file editors a document could be opened in? OK, if you have fears of stuff leaking...why would you be typing it up and sending it to people in the first place? My feeling is that Microsoft is trying to do too much. Security problems are attitude, not software.
Microsoft is setting themselves up for failure by making a already complicated product even more complicated and harder to use seamlessly. This should not be their objective.
BTW, can anyone say that Word 2000 is not adequate for your needs? Seriously, what more do you need in a word processor? If you need more than word 2000 offers, you should be using a different product. (especially at the incredibly exorbitant cost that MS office goes for these days)
What will replace the floppy drive? Granted, it's antique, and @#$ing slow, but what other method do you have to transfer small files easily between two computers, without the net? Granted, everything should just be net based, but what happens if your net connection goes down? Floppy drives are simple, easy to use, and widely available in PCs. Also, you can't monitor a floppy drive like you can emails;)
Er...you're example is wrong. A burgler HAS committed a crime. You can't monitor everyone, simply because you think everyone might be engaging in illegal activity. Some people DO have valid transfers over the internet, that they may want to keep private. You don't just go diving into anything, unless there is probable cause.
The whole idea that an entity has the right to monitor everything in search of illegal activity is completely against the fundamental principles of the constitution. If the constitution is in any way slighted, it is inevitable that it will be shoved aside like a derelict old man by the young bucks.
Without the constitiution, we are no longer a democracy.
Oh god, that was 1995, that meant that was win95...*snigger* well, that was one POS operating system anyway. At least it had directx tho heh. I think it would be interesting if there had never been directx. Would OpenGL be better if Microsoft had used it instead? *ponders*
LoL I don't know where you get that idea, but that's called FASCISM, and that's not what democrats are about. The democrats are weak now, and I think they're a bunch of knock-kneed weasels, but at least they still believe in all of the constitution, unlike some other political party I could mention...I think the constitution is going out of style. Probably another constitution will be written soon, with the words "BIBLE" on it.
At least we can play with our toys until doomsday =P
Ok, Site is slashdotted, but I am wondering, I was under the impression that Doom III uses OpenGL. If that is the case, does the Radeon support opengl better than Nvidia? That, I have a hard time believing. I thought ATI was all about DirectX.
Well, how much percentage would not be spam that would be targeted by this system? I find it highly doubtful that only spam would get targeted; systems first of all never have 100% success rate. It's impossible. Also, I could see this happening: They think "Oh, you don't use Outlook as your email client, 1 cent for your email transfer!" What's to stop them? And if someone does complain, then they can just say "oh, it's an error in the system..." Who's going to complain? It's just one cent.
This mentality is reinforced by the fact that microsoft SPECIFICALLY TARGETED users of the Opera browser to improperly display MSN.com. This kind of thing makes me sick, and I do NOT want these people controlling an email system that would involve my money.
I know there are decent people at Microsoft (or so I hope) but I KNOW that not all of them are decent, and most of those are near the top...
I think it could be said that the entire concept of Fascism is what sealed Hitler's fate. Anti-semitism is one aspect of Fascism certainly, His idea of the Supreme Race. He was simply, deranged. The idea that science or an individual's personality isn't as highly valued as the color of your hair/eyes, is one that will get you nowhere.
Disclaimer: I am not an expert on these things, so this is my perspective/opinion
I feel that if VoIP is regulated, this brings into play a very interesting question. Is the internet, which can be used for almost anything besides transferring actual physical objects (wouldn't that be cool!), something that can be split into different segments? To target one function of the internet, VoIP, is to invite regulation of other services. Take streaming video for example. Should that be regulated like TV? The same goes for internet radio. Where is the line drawn? This is what needs to be established. The internet is so much more complex than simple telephony, that it is impossible to only regulate one aspect of it, without taking into account the other aspects. The internet is not like airwaves; it is not like telephone lines. Why does regulation exist? Does it exist to give profit to a little clique of individuals? Or does it exist to bring order to a limited resource? The internet is by design, a non-limited resource. Theoretically, it could hold a very large volume of traffic, and deal with it fine. There is no reason, to regulate something which does not need regulating. People want it. Companies have to step up, and give them what they want. The government has no role in this aspect. If it puts the telephone companies out of business, so be it! Just like the RIAA, and the railroad companies, they will cling to their vestiges of power and control as long as they can, and this only halts technological advance and innovation. We must be on the cutting edge, or we will be left biting the dust by other countries.
This is a step that should be made be more governments, to ease the tax process for people who don't want to spend money for a tax program. Jeez, we have to pay the taxes, why do we have to pay for a tax program to pay the taxes??
Wouldn't it be cool if the players failed miserably, and it all turned into a desert? oh...wait a minute....
*ahem* Maybe this will be a haven from all the rabid player killas we have all grown to hate in online games. It's nice to see someone trying to create something constructive, instead of completely destructive. The destructive games make me think our culture is perpetually stuck in adolescent mode...heh, well, I guess it's that in combination with everything else ^^
It's not that it's a bad thing. The problem is, that we haven't yet fully come to understand Earth's weather systems. How can we possibly expect to create a feasible system on another planet? There is still a lot more that needs to be learned about complex systems.
Also, it is silly to divert our attention to pipe dreams, when with a little tweaking we can make the planet we're living on a Gaia. Why would you throw away 65 billion years (or however many years life has been evolving on this old rock) to start from square one on another planet? It's just silly!
Personally, I think the idea of terraforming Mars is just another form of escapism from reality. Let's deal with where we are right now, instead of looking to far off places when there are problems in front of us. Anyone else read Charles Dickenses "Bleak House"? Mrs. Jellyby is a prime example of what we should NOT do.
A very good point! This would make bug reports that could be used to exploit a system illegal under the DMCA! Imagine if we had no information about what bugs there were in Microsoft's operating system...Things would never get fixed.
Note: I still think VBscript needs to be "fixed" i.e. removed from the entire operating system =P
Now, people will realize "Oh, Symantec knows about major virus outbreaks in advance. There's nothing I can do about it, but with their assistance, I can avoid problems" So the corporation plops down money to be a "preferred" customer, and whenever Symantec knows the virus is going out, they tell them beforehand so they don't get caught by it. Basically, Symantec is saying "We know everything. Buy our products, to escape damnation." Sound familiar? One of the oldest strategies in the book.
This is just part of the larger picture. The government believes that the american people should be treated like little babies, with everything filtered through a specific viewpoint. This is in line with the fact that courts want to make it hard for people to actually read what is going on in courts, and to have to hear about it in the mainstream press, if they deem it worthy of little babies' attention. It's more an issue of control than anything else. Imagine if *gasp* we could read about all the things the U.S. government has done, without telling us! Oh, the horror! Better not let poor little snookums know about the little peccadilloes daddy's done in the name of democracy, freedom, and everything.
*Ahem* anyway, why would american's want to learn about what decisions the courts are making? Go back to your regularly scheduled trash on that tube in your house, isn't Judge Judy good enough for you?
OK I admit I'm being a troll.. Oh well. Blame it on the code orange alert =P
CIPA is one of those things that looks good on the outside, but is muck on the inside. Everyone doesn't want kids to access porno, since that is just...wrong. However, the way in which CIPA will be carried out is a major concern. Most public libraries that I know are extremely underfunded, and with the incredible state deficits, they will probably become even less funded.
The internet is a valuable resource, but part of makes it a valuable resource is how open it is, and how variable. As soon as you start introducing legislation that limits what people can actually see, it weakens the openness of the internet. Now, I know most people will say "Oh, well, pr0n isn't something that should even exist on the internet." That's certainly a valid opinion, but I don't feel that anyone should be able to tell someone else what is valid or isn't valid. I think the best solution would be to have "kid safe" computers at libraries, that use the commercial or whatever method of blocking sites, and allowing kids under 18 or whatever to only use those machines, and not others. Adults could use "kid safe" computers if they wanted to, but there would still be some computers which had unrestricted access. That's as free a solution as I can think of. Tying all the computers through one proxy, or whatever other method they use to filter content, just isn't very logical, since it is too heavy handed.
In my opinion, these computer generated flicks (ok so spiderman was still a decent movie... I'm not bashing that one) should be in the Animated Movie categories. It's no different from Anime with voiceovers. Adaptation...Now there's a REAL film heh;)
Or you could just buy a really cheap processor, and just use the software you have now. Unless you play games, apps are pretty much done, there's not much more you can do in the closed-source world. How many times can you rewrite a word processor? There does come a point where you don't need processing power, but optimized code and reduced bloat. The only reason for increasing clock speeds is the chip companies realize they will quickly go out of business if they don't hype up their faster clock speeds for the average user. It's really pathetic, because people that buy into it are just wasting money. They would be fine with a 300mhz pentium doing word processing and internet browsing, and don't need much more than that. The only place fast paced computers have are in a work environment, where speed is essential to getting a job done. You have to look at what you get out of the machine...if you keep on going faster and faster in the home industry, but get diminishing returns, what is the point? I feel it is important to advance technology, but you have to look at the practical issues as well, i.e. do most people need goliath to solve little problems.
Sheesh, who wants to play a game that simulates real life? Real life is boring enough without having a boring emulation of it...jeez...It's kind of pathetic having virtual parties,,, why not have a real life party and get drunk?
OK OK, not my idea of fun, but still....I don't see why anyone would want to play this game, and pay for it....It's like paying for a graphical chat room.
I think there is some validity to this position, because there is no possible way to get rid of filesharing, since people will always find ways around blocks...That is the nature of the internet. I've seen many posts on slashdot, and I know that many people would prefer to buy very high quality (i.e. lossless, or 320kbits ogg or mp3) for a small fee. The transition period, as has been noted, is very difficult. Change is always difficult, and the shortsightedness of the RIAA has not helped them. They are obviously either opportunists or vagrants out to steal people's money. If they truly were real business managers, they would find a way to make the current reality work. You can't change reality to fit what you want. This has been shown throughout history (which is also why wars have been fought, ahem, French Revolution). I think it is very good that we don't have to resort to violence to solve this conflict anymore; it shows how far our society has evolved. Anyways, I hope they can figure something out, because I'm tired of 128kbits mp3s off p2p networks =P
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, only one problem. The site mirrors openoffice...Guess what. It probably doesn't have much money. IMHO, this is BSA's Microsoft-fueled tactics. Target the little guys with lawsuits, commit perjury...and get away with it because the little guys can't afford as many lawyers as you have. Of course, this would never happen in a democratic society.
Honestly, software should never be more valued than the people using/maintaining it. It will take maybe 50 years to make a system that can maintain itself, without outside intervention. That should not be our goal anyway, because it eliminates creativity, invention, and new ideas (who ever heard of a machine that could come up with new concepts?)
Oooooooh thanks for the info! As you can tell, I'm not very informed in this arena. ^^
Is the medium of the minidisc what keeps it from being able to store digital files? I don't know much about the structure of minidisc storage. Still, I think it would be a rad idea.
Seriously, when you make music, typically you want it to be your life, not just a hobby. If you want to make money doing it, and you're good, you should be able to. Which do you value more? The music musicians make? Or the papers lawyers shuffle around endlessly?
One could say Lawyers put more effort into it. However, I don't think anyone can say that making good music is easy. It's just one of those things that are subjective. Music is something that only a few can make a living doing.
Microsoft is setting themselves up for failure by making a already complicated product even more complicated and harder to use seamlessly. This should not be their objective.
BTW, can anyone say that Word 2000 is not adequate for your needs? Seriously, what more do you need in a word processor? If you need more than word 2000 offers, you should be using a different product. (especially at the incredibly exorbitant cost that MS office goes for these days)
What will replace the floppy drive? Granted, it's antique, and @#$ing slow, but what other method do you have to transfer small files easily between two computers, without the net? Granted, everything should just be net based, but what happens if your net connection goes down? Floppy drives are simple, easy to use, and widely available in PCs. Also, you can't monitor a floppy drive like you can emails ;)
The whole idea that an entity has the right to monitor everything in search of illegal activity is completely against the fundamental principles of the constitution. If the constitution is in any way slighted, it is inevitable that it will be shoved aside like a derelict old man by the young bucks.
Without the constitiution, we are no longer a democracy.
Oh god, that was 1995, that meant that was win95...*snigger* well, that was one POS operating system anyway. At least it had directx tho heh. I think it would be interesting if there had never been directx. Would OpenGL be better if Microsoft had used it instead? *ponders*
At least we can play with our toys until doomsday =P
Ok, Site is slashdotted, but I am wondering, I was under the impression that Doom III uses OpenGL. If that is the case, does the Radeon support opengl better than Nvidia? That, I have a hard time believing. I thought ATI was all about DirectX.
This mentality is reinforced by the fact that microsoft SPECIFICALLY TARGETED users of the Opera browser to improperly display MSN.com. This kind of thing makes me sick, and I do NOT want these people controlling an email system that would involve my money.
I know there are decent people at Microsoft (or so I hope) but I KNOW that not all of them are decent, and most of those are near the top...
I just can't see this ever happening.
I think it could be said that the entire concept of Fascism is what sealed Hitler's fate. Anti-semitism is one aspect of Fascism certainly, His idea of the Supreme Race. He was simply, deranged. The idea that science or an individual's personality isn't as highly valued as the color of your hair/eyes, is one that will get you nowhere.
I feel that if VoIP is regulated, this brings into play a very interesting question. Is the internet, which can be used for almost anything besides transferring actual physical objects (wouldn't that be cool!), something that can be split into different segments? To target one function of the internet, VoIP, is to invite regulation of other services. Take streaming video for example. Should that be regulated like TV? The same goes for internet radio. Where is the line drawn? This is what needs to be established. The internet is so much more complex than simple telephony, that it is impossible to only regulate one aspect of it, without taking into account the other aspects. The internet is not like airwaves; it is not like telephone lines. Why does regulation exist? Does it exist to give profit to a little clique of individuals? Or does it exist to bring order to a limited resource? The internet is by design, a non-limited resource. Theoretically, it could hold a very large volume of traffic, and deal with it fine. There is no reason, to regulate something which does not need regulating. People want it. Companies have to step up, and give them what they want. The government has no role in this aspect. If it puts the telephone companies out of business, so be it! Just like the RIAA, and the railroad companies, they will cling to their vestiges of power and control as long as they can, and this only halts technological advance and innovation. We must be on the cutting edge, or we will be left biting the dust by other countries.
This is a step that should be made be more governments, to ease the tax process for people who don't want to spend money for a tax program. Jeez, we have to pay the taxes, why do we have to pay for a tax program to pay the taxes??
Wouldn't it be cool if the players failed miserably, and it all turned into a desert? oh...wait a minute....
*ahem* Maybe this will be a haven from all the rabid player killas we have all grown to hate in online games. It's nice to see someone trying to create something constructive, instead of completely destructive. The destructive games make me think our culture is perpetually stuck in adolescent mode...heh, well, I guess it's that in combination with everything else ^^
It's not that it's a bad thing. The problem is, that we haven't yet fully come to understand Earth's weather systems. How can we possibly expect to create a feasible system on another planet? There is still a lot more that needs to be learned about complex systems.
Also, it is silly to divert our attention to pipe dreams, when with a little tweaking we can make the planet we're living on a Gaia. Why would you throw away 65 billion years (or however many years life has been evolving on this old rock) to start from square one on another planet? It's just silly!
Personally, I think the idea of terraforming Mars is just another form of escapism from reality. Let's deal with where we are right now, instead of looking to far off places when there are problems in front of us. Anyone else read Charles Dickenses "Bleak House"? Mrs. Jellyby is a prime example of what we should NOT do.
Imagine if we had no information about what bugs there were in Microsoft's operating system...Things would never get fixed.
Note: I still think VBscript needs to be "fixed" i.e. removed from the entire operating system =P
Now, people will realize "Oh, Symantec knows about major virus outbreaks in advance. There's nothing I can do about it, but with their assistance, I can avoid problems" So the corporation plops down money to be a "preferred" customer, and whenever Symantec knows the virus is going out, they tell them beforehand so they don't get caught by it. Basically, Symantec is saying "We know everything. Buy our products, to escape damnation." Sound familiar? One of the oldest strategies in the book.
This is just part of the larger picture. The government believes that the american people should be treated like little babies, with everything filtered through a specific viewpoint. This is in line with the fact that courts want to make it hard for people to actually read what is going on in courts, and to have to hear about it in the mainstream press, if they deem it worthy of little babies' attention. It's more an issue of control than anything else. Imagine if *gasp* we could read about all the things the U.S. government has done, without telling us! Oh, the horror! Better not let poor little snookums know about the little peccadilloes daddy's done in the name of democracy, freedom, and everything.
*Ahem* anyway, why would american's want to learn about what decisions the courts are making? Go back to your regularly scheduled trash on that tube in your house, isn't Judge Judy good enough for you?
OK I admit I'm being a troll.. Oh well. Blame it on the code orange alert =P
CIPA is one of those things that looks good on the outside, but is muck on the inside. Everyone doesn't want kids to access porno, since that is just...wrong. However, the way in which CIPA will be carried out is a major concern. Most public libraries that I know are extremely underfunded, and with the incredible state deficits, they will probably become even less funded.
The internet is a valuable resource, but part of makes it a valuable resource is how open it is, and how variable. As soon as you start introducing legislation that limits what people can actually see, it weakens the openness of the internet. Now, I know most people will say "Oh, well, pr0n isn't something that should even exist on the internet." That's certainly a valid opinion, but I don't feel that anyone should be able to tell someone else what is valid or isn't valid. I think the best solution would be to have "kid safe" computers at libraries, that use the commercial or whatever method of blocking sites, and allowing kids under 18 or whatever to only use those machines, and not others. Adults could use "kid safe" computers if they wanted to, but there would still be some computers which had unrestricted access. That's as free a solution as I can think of. Tying all the computers through one proxy, or whatever other method they use to filter content, just isn't very logical, since it is too heavy handed.
In my opinion, these computer generated flicks (ok so spiderman was still a decent movie... I'm not bashing that one) should be in the Animated Movie categories. It's no different from Anime with voiceovers. Adaptation...Now there's a REAL film heh ;)
Or you could just buy a really cheap processor, and just use the software you have now. Unless you play games, apps are pretty much done, there's not much more you can do in the closed-source world. How many times can you rewrite a word processor? There does come a point where you don't need processing power, but optimized code and reduced bloat. The only reason for increasing clock speeds is the chip companies realize they will quickly go out of business if they don't hype up their faster clock speeds for the average user. It's really pathetic, because people that buy into it are just wasting money. They would be fine with a 300mhz pentium doing word processing and internet browsing, and don't need much more than that. The only place fast paced computers have are in a work environment, where speed is essential to getting a job done. You have to look at what you get out of the machine...if you keep on going faster and faster in the home industry, but get diminishing returns, what is the point? I feel it is important to advance technology, but you have to look at the practical issues as well, i.e. do most people need goliath to solve little problems.
Sheesh, who wants to play a game that simulates real life? Real life is boring enough without having a boring emulation of it...jeez...It's kind of pathetic having virtual parties,,, why not have a real life party and get drunk? OK OK, not my idea of fun, but still....I don't see why anyone would want to play this game, and pay for it....It's like paying for a graphical chat room.
I think there is some validity to this position, because there is no possible way to get rid of filesharing, since people will always find ways around blocks...That is the nature of the internet. I've seen many posts on slashdot, and I know that many people would prefer to buy very high quality (i.e. lossless, or 320kbits ogg or mp3) for a small fee. The transition period, as has been noted, is very difficult. Change is always difficult, and the shortsightedness of the RIAA has not helped them. They are obviously either opportunists or vagrants out to steal people's money. If they truly were real business managers, they would find a way to make the current reality work. You can't change reality to fit what you want. This has been shown throughout history (which is also why wars have been fought, ahem, French Revolution). I think it is very good that we don't have to resort to violence to solve this conflict anymore; it shows how far our society has evolved. Anyways, I hope they can figure something out, because I'm tired of 128kbits mp3s off p2p networks =P