The difference between being practical or political is sometimes a matter of time frame -- often people who are labeled political or too idealistic are actually just being practical but over a much longer period of time.
Example: Stallman in the 80s: People ridiculed him for the GNU manifesto and thought he was crazy and "political". I say he was practical.
package management: Yeah, apt-get's dependency resolution logic is very cool. Other aspects of the system aren't so cool. Apt-get, aptitude, and other front-ends don't share the same back-end data-store, so if you mix and match these tools, you get inconsistent package data.
I have no idea what front-ends you used, but my experiences with apt-get, aptitude, synaptic and straight dpkg have been very positive. No package inconsistencies.
Well, we only have this guys word on that... He doesn't "even bother linking to" the java version. I have a feeling if he did, we'd see some pretty interesting design decisions. 50 files for a small web service is not normal, neither is >3000 lines of code.
Do you have any references for cracking 1024-bit keys in hours? I can understand that claim given some structural weakness in the cipher, but you seem to be implying that this is possible on any system...
It's fine to be on ones toes in these matters (and e.g. expect the aforementioned structural weaknesses to be present in individual ciphers), but fearing brute force without evidence is not smart... Please provide a link or some calculations.
You misunderstood -- you're probably not alone since the Microsoft press release was, in my opinion, crafted for that purpose: What they said was basically that Live customers are protected from known exploits using the WMF hole. Any updated Anti-virus/Anti-spyware software will do the same. The hole is still there for any new exploit.
My memories of these things from the uni are a little hazy, but that 1 cm accuracy is probably a lie (except if the error estimates are in the range of +-100cm for 95% certainty). Just the atmospheric errors prevent you from measuring your position to the accuracy of under half a meter.
There is another big benefit however: Galileo might just be an economic success. GPS certainly is and competition mostly doesn't hurt, right?
Some evidence please. My own experience (and web research before I became their customer) does not support your opinion. I would stop using their services if I thought they were criminals, but I won't do it just because mr. DeadMilkman says I'm naive.
Let's see... The music industry does not give me the service I want, but instead just tells me to bend over again and again (high prices, DRM, preventing fair use by technical and political means, non-standard "standards" all over the place, cartels), and justifies all this with "Hey, copyright is copyright: we're the good guys 'cause everything we do is legal.".
Fuck, I can play that game too. Allofmp3 is legal and follows Russian copyright law. If the music industry doesn't want to abide that law, then they shouldn't do business in Russia. I'm sorry some artists will end up making less because of that, but... maybe they shouldn't be part of the problem?
Just for the record: The extensive song collection on my computer is 100% legal. It will stay that way, except if I happen to buy music which has a copy prevention system that I have to break to rip it (another "bend over, it's the law" by the music industry).
And this is the award winning, "User Friendly" distro? Treating your users like idiots, but making them have "guru" skills just to play an mp3 is "friendly"? Good thing the average user only plays vorbis files, eh?
Canonical releases a desktop operating system and even sends you the CDs, completely free of charge. It would be nice if they paid the mp3 license for you too, I agree. Demanding that they do is rude and childish.
Oh, and while we're sharing our anecdotal experiences: My ancient laptops (one IBM) worked very nicely with Ubuntu.
We need a wordprocesser that encourages semantic layout. I'm talking about templates that are easy to use, not hidden, with accessible formatting controls (think WordPerfect reveal codes).
Right now I'm working on a document management system for law offices that will make it so they don't have to have a single piece of paper.
Ok. Nothing personal here, just an opinion based on knowing some lawyers (and people too): You will fail. If you think that poor document management is the reason they use paper, you're wrong. It's not that they don't need better document management, it's that they read a lot and they don't like using a computer to do it -- it's that simple. Electronic document management might mean less paper lying on tables, but it'll probably mean even more printing...
Personally, if you want me to stop printing, you'll first have to give me a light, portable, high resolution, wireless, easy-on-the-eyes screen.
That's about 7-8$ per GB? Wouldn't it be wiser to buy an external firewire harddrive every once in a while, they're less than 1$ per GB -- you could even buy another one for redundancy and still pay less?
Of course there are better ways to use the money -- there always are. Thinking otherwise would be childish. The problem is that if you only accept the perfect, you'll never get anything done...
...stories of how the unelected EU parliament tries to lord over every mundane aspect of life...
I understand your fear of faceless bureaucracy, but... what the fuck are you talking about here? The parliament is directly elected by EU citizens (the last time this happened was June 2004, next elections will be in 2009).
Furthermore the parliament cannot propose laws, so it's really not in the position to "lord over mundane aspects of life". Maybe you're thinking of the Council of Ministers or (most probably) the Commission? The commissioners are appointed by the member states, so maybe that's what you were referrring to. Even then:
Governments of member states are democraticly elected
Comission as a whole must be approved by parliament (this is not just a rubber stamp as was seen when Barroso had to withdraw his first list)
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Example: Stallman in the 80s: People ridiculed him for the GNU manifesto and thought he was crazy and "political". I say he was practical.
Not to mention that a DVD player is "digital" in the same sense that a coffee mug is liquid.
...WHOOSH!
It's fine to be on ones toes in these matters (and e.g. expect the aforementioned structural weaknesses to be present in individual ciphers), but fearing brute force without evidence is not smart... Please provide a link or some calculations.
You misunderstood -- you're probably not alone since the Microsoft press release was, in my opinion, crafted for that purpose: What they said was basically that Live customers are protected from known exploits using the WMF hole. Any updated Anti-virus/Anti-spyware software will do the same. The hole is still there for any new exploit.
No-one is forcing you to use the on-line version. Just download the static HTML dump and use that. A DVD won't cut it though -- it's close to 30 Gigs.
There is another big benefit however: Galileo might just be an economic success. GPS certainly is and competition mostly doesn't hurt, right?
I'd say that practice has proven his ideas sound and quite applicable in the real world.
So put up the evidence or shut up.
Fuck, I can play that game too. Allofmp3 is legal and follows Russian copyright law. If the music industry doesn't want to abide that law, then they shouldn't do business in Russia. I'm sorry some artists will end up making less because of that, but... maybe they shouldn't be part of the problem?
Just for the record: The extensive song collection on my computer is 100% legal. It will stay that way, except if I happen to buy music which has a copy prevention system that I have to break to rip it (another "bend over, it's the law" by the music industry).
Sure, but this way F-Secure can put out a press release...
Personally, if you want me to stop printing, you'll first have to give me a light, portable, high resolution, wireless, easy-on-the-eyes screen.
If their product is superior, it will stay on top even without the format lock-in.
That's about 7-8$ per GB? Wouldn't it be wiser to buy an external firewire harddrive every once in a while, they're less than 1$ per GB -- you could even buy another one for redundancy and still pay less?
Amazon is company. The only reason they might seem "pro-author" is that it happens to be a by-product of being pro-profit...
Of course there are better ways to use the money -- there always are. Thinking otherwise would be childish. The problem is that if you only accept the perfect, you'll never get anything done...
Microsofts yearly profit is 10 bn euros, right? 500 million is a lot of money even to them.
Furthermore the parliament cannot propose laws, so it's really not in the position to "lord over mundane aspects of life". Maybe you're thinking of the Council of Ministers or (most probably) the Commission? The commissioners are appointed by the member states, so maybe that's what you were referrring to. Even then: