Your closing sentence shows that there is still a very big amount of confusion about the African situation.
All countries in the world are in debt - America owes BILLIONS, Britian too.
The African countries are charged massive amounts of interest, it's so bad that they can barely afford to pay the interest let alone the actual loans.
But I do agree. Some of the technologies from Space programs are really great - Teflon for example.
With any organisation, you need a stable base upon which to grow, we don't quite have that yet, so thats why I think all the huge resources poured into the Space Program(s) should erhaps be spent on our more immediate needs.
By the way, in America and Europe, we have poverty, disease and homelesness, so don't say "It doesn't concern me" - because it does.
Is it only me? I've always thought the "Space Race" was a grotesque display of materialistic BS. All the many hundreds of billions of dollars that have been spent world-wide on missions to space (many with little or no scienctific value).
Now we're building a glorified hotel, up there in orbit. Thats really nice and fine. We can go up there, while the "lesser" humans down here starve and die of disease.
Yes, I have a problem with this. I'm not a ludite by any means. I just wonder why we expand our borders, whilst inside our borders we have all these problems that could be easily solved with a little (big) cash injection.
Not very eloquent today, but I hope you see my point.
Let me get this straight? This is a company which has even less in the way of physical assets, than (for example) Redhat, who (you will remember) are now worth an absolutely ridiculous amount of money.
Can anyone tell me exactly what Altavista owns, how it makes money (if it does?) and what its turnover, net assests etc are?
5 billion is a lot, no matter how you say it. The only thing I can imagine is that people will invest in case AV starts to make money. But with the 5 billion investment, AV could easily itself invest in other companies with tangible assets - maybe this is the point though, and I'm missing it? If anyone out there has some spare cash to invest mail me, I know the ideal thing for you (no really!).
But yeah, this is one almighty head-f*** so early in the morning!
But we never WILL do anything, we'll bitch and flame and maybe even start a working group (I hate that term, but it fits), but we'll never actually do anything about it. When it is seen that we don't, then techniques such as this will get more widespread. It sux, but that's the way it goes. I mean, what are they using this for? Do they look at your config (to get your email addy), then spam you with "relevant" stuff, based on the sites you visit?
I imagine though, that this could class as "Stalking" or "Harrasment" in many countries, simpoly becuase you are being "followed"... Any legal-type people able to comment on this?
Oh, if you want to beat them at their own game... Alladvantage pay you (a small fee) to surf, in return they gather data about your surfing habits. You don't get spammed or anything, and I personally think it's pretty cool! Oh, if you sign up, put "GGZ 549" as your referer:) (blatant plug, I know, I know....)
I completely disagree. You can't do the automation and development and integration of MSOffice, with SO or WP-Suite. Really.
The (abused) Macro / VB implementation was a god-send.
That "95%" don't do anything other than type a letter is just your opinion. Even my mother managed to set up Word so that it took some figures from an XL spread sheet once per week, and put them into a Word report.
Sure, MS products are bloated, becuase of the way the programming is done at MS, and sure, they are massively over priced. But many (more than that "5%") do need some, or many, of the features...
You got a "3" score because you were anti-MS, I stayed firmly at "1" because I dared to say that something (while not good) wasn't bad.
Sometimes, Slashdot really sucks.
Mong.
P.S. I'm running WM inside eXceed from Win98 - becuase it's the best soloution for me, not becuase I need to grow up and stop hating MS.
I'm having a bad day already:( * Paul Madley...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Incidentally (and a little off-topic), Corels Linux site got the/. effect only a few minutes after the story "broke" here. * Paul Madley...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Nah, I had this discussion today actually. Even the Linux users here agree that Office is simply the most powerful and best integrated "suite" available. Neither Start nor WordPerfect suites are good enough to beat it. It's bloated, but the Office-bloat contains feature-packed substance.
Sorry.
But then, if WordPerfect Suite were FREE, then all the people who started with good old WordPerfect in the 80's would (hopefully) convert, and then the interest would prompt development and then it WOULD be as powerfull and usefull as MS Office... If you see what I'm driving at?
Now I can write back to the Mexicana Chica who works here and explain CLEARLY and CONCISELY, that whilst very attractive and nice, I can't respond to her advances because I am already "with woman".
The last time I tried, Babelfish somehow made me inform her that I'd love to " kiss her making angry other woman".
A *really* good BBS still exists, it's run by a group of Norwegians, and even has (fairly) regular visits from the author of BBBS, we have people from Freehive there, and people from GPhoto.org.
I agree totally, it's like "Oh, we can do all this theming stuff, it's really cool - oh by the way, you can't "quite" run this app yet, becuase X part of Y is pretty buggy and need 256mb to run".
We use Linux and BSD here for practically ever server, and have it on some desktops also. But we (for example) need browsers that support ALL of HTML4, ALL of JavaScript and run ALL(or at least most) Java Applets.
Oh, and the KDE-Gnome compatibility thing... you're running the SAME OS, okay your products are different in appearence, and to some (small IMHO) extent, in operation - but surely the same apps should run on either? It's not quite the same (I know) but using for example the Litestep shell instead of the standard Explorer shell on Windows DOESN'T mean you can't run certain apps.
Basically, I think the whole situation is still fairly amateurish, there's a lot of skilled and professional people involved right now (I know some of them), but something is not quite clicking.
I want Linux/KDE/Gnome to be the successes they deserve to be (they really do), but it's not really gonna happen if the present system isn't re-evaluated.
Hmm, wonder what the COREL release will be like?;)
Erm, Europe is a whole lot bigger than England you know. In fact, the U.K is probably more likely to support an American firm, than any other European State, sorry... country;)
Can an appeals court actually refuse to get involved? I know we're talking about M$ here, but surely the laws you have in America provide you with adequate rights to appeal?
What do people think the final ruling will be btw? Are we looking at lots of "Baby-Bills", like you have "Baby Bells"? That'd make sense.
I hope all this litigation doesn't end up putting MS out of business, hard as it is to stomach, they were one of the reasons why computing became widespread. Now if only they'd get back to their old ideal of making good software...
You can get an Alpha box, and cheap. No... seriously...
In the UK, a lot of companies (particularly Local Government) are selling off "old" equipment, drifting away from the centralised approach.
An excellent example is my friend who was working for ICI (big Chemical company). He got a really nice SPARC, with a 21" screen etc for a few pounds (UK Sterling).
I imagine some idiots are also letting go of Alphas for similar prices. At the place I worked (Local Gov), they were literally THROWING away machines, I nearly got me a huge VAX system, but realised that I had nowhere to put it, and probably no use for it...
But anyway, you should probably "surf" and see if any surplus suppliers got there hands on any of these...
For what it's worth, the particular theories I could feasibly subscribe to goes something like this:
We perceive time according to the cycles of the Sun. As we are finite beings, we only see time, creation and life as being linear. It is certainly true/probable that Dinosaurs et al existed and died and became oil many, many years ago. However, what if our perception of "time" is wrong, indeed what if there is no "time". Just as we live a finite existence, what about beings who don't? We possibly can't percieve them, them us. A tree (asfaik) doesn't die unless something causes it too. The point I'm making is that maybe there was no initial "push", whether Godly, or Atomically. There maybe don't have to be reasons for being here. Have people considered what was "there" before the Big Bang? Nothing can't become something, without there being something in the nothing. Comprende?
The other option could be that we WERE created by some superior force. The old idea of "alien" intervention makes a LOT of sense, in the late 20th (C), we are capable of dramatically altering life via "tampering" with DNA. In a hundred years, maybe we will be able to create it... Thanks to the Dark Ages, humanity is probably about 200 years behind schedule, that is; no inovation or exploration really occured then - it was a complete standstill. Maybe if we had used those 200 years, we'd be in the position to create life already. Now note that many, many planets are many, many years/decades/millenia... older than our own. Go figure.
Thirdly, maybe it's all dream, or maybe we're a really advanced computer program - Sim City 9000?
Hard to say.
The only thing I will say, is that most of the worlds religions are dumb. People blindly following a creed usually passed to them from their family/school. Many religions died out at the hands of others. Just becuase Christianity is probably the most "dominant", it maybe isn't right. Religions tend to have grown from tribal stories and folk lore. Maybe in 2000 years, there'll be a Saint Jean Luc Picard, or a Prophet Yoda. After all, some guy turned water into wine, and another guy instructs a giant beetle to push the sun into the sky.
Hmm, I'd best get some series cermaic plating... I feel a well directed thunderbolt, coming right this way...
Valid point. UK T.V is much better resoloution than US T.V. And now with Digital, we're miles ahead. When I watch something on video (brand new Mitsubishi video player), the difference between a video and a T.V broadcast is massive.
I got told that DVD is similar in quality to S-VHS. Anyone know if this is true?
No, the future certianly isn't ADC. It's more like video-on-demand and stuff like that. DVD won't be able to compete, in under 10 years time, when we all have the ability to just stream a full movie into our house. It's already happening in the UK now, with the latest DigitalTV advance.
I certainly wouldn't invest in ADC. That'd be silly.
The evils of the US? Invading our hallowed shores? Never! We will never be overcome! We shall fight them on the beaches! We shall fight them on the...
Oops, sorry:)
Seriously, I don't think DVD (as it stands) is good enough for it to be mainstream here. No offense, but just because lots of people have it there, doesn't mean it's a Good Thing(tm). I mean, lots of people use Windows (including me), but this is certainly not a Good Thing(tm). We all use VHS, but Beta was by *far* a better format.
I'm not sold on DVD (yet), but I look forward to the time when my PC can be just as good as my TV/Video setup.
No seriously, here in the UK, electronics (and everything else) are pretty expensive. I'd hazard that less than 1% of the population has access to DVD. I mean, only about 3.5 houses in 20 has a PC of any kind (I read that someplace). Only the very expensive machines come with DVD, also we all tend to use 14/15 monitors, which aren't too nice for video.
Video stores will not stock much in the way of DVD here I think. Not in the near future anyway.
Lemme guess, the ppl who publish The Matrix are owned by one of the big electronics corporations? Lemme guess, they think we should all have 10bit players. Lemme guess, they think "Well, The Matrix was a big hit amongst Geeks", Lemme guess, they go "We'll make Geeks buy these 10bit players by putting the'r favourite movie on this format".
Not quite ON topic I guess, but; Will The Matrix eventually be released on video? I get conflicting stories you see. One says "No", one says "it already is in the States", and the other says "It will, but not until the DVD has stopped selling real well".
I'd imagine the last one to be true myself.
And I,(this may be Flame Bait) don't want to get a DVD because I don't think theres's much of a future for it. Sorry!
Slashdot Mirror
Your closing sentence shows that there is still a very big amount of confusion about the African situation.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
All countries in the world are in debt - America owes BILLIONS, Britian too.
The African countries are charged massive amounts of interest, it's so bad that they can barely afford to pay the interest let alone the actual loans.
But I do agree. Some of the technologies from Space programs are really great - Teflon for example.
With any organisation, you need a stable base upon which to grow, we don't quite have that yet, so thats why I think all the huge resources poured into the Space Program(s) should erhaps be spent on our more immediate needs.
By the way, in America and Europe, we have poverty, disease and homelesness, so don't say "It doesn't concern me" - because it does.
(WE: This wasn't a personal attacj btw)
Mong.
* Paul Madley
No, we need to fix things here first.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
In the short time it would take to stabalise Africa, the Earth isn't about to implode or spin off it's access.
YES, I want to go to Mars. But I would prefer the person that just died of starvation to have lived.
Oh, there goes another one, this time of disease...
Point taken?
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Is it only me? I've always thought the "Space Race" was a grotesque display of materialistic BS. All the many hundreds of billions of dollars that have been spent world-wide on missions to space (many with little or no scienctific value).
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Now we're building a glorified hotel, up there in orbit. Thats really nice and fine. We can go up there, while the "lesser" humans down here starve and die of disease.
Yes, I have a problem with this. I'm not a ludite by any means. I just wonder why we expand our borders, whilst inside our borders we have all these problems that could be easily solved with a little (big) cash injection.
Not very eloquent today, but I hope you see my point.
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Let me get this straight? This is a company which has even less in the way of physical assets, than (for example) Redhat, who (you will remember) are now worth an absolutely ridiculous amount of money.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Can anyone tell me exactly what Altavista owns, how it makes money (if it does?) and what its turnover, net assests etc are?
5 billion is a lot, no matter how you say it. The only thing I can imagine is that people will invest in case AV starts to make money. But with the 5 billion investment, AV could easily itself invest in other companies with tangible assets - maybe this is the point though, and I'm missing it? If anyone out there has some spare cash to invest mail me, I know the ideal thing for you (no really!).
But yeah, this is one almighty head-f*** so early in the morning!
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Agreed. WTO are a Good Thing(tm).
:)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Just because they're big, it doens't mean they're bad
Mong.
* Paul Madley
But we never WILL do anything, we'll bitch and flame and maybe even start a working group (I hate that term, but it fits), but we'll never actually do anything about it. When it is seen that we don't, then techniques such as this will get more widespread. It sux, but that's the way it goes. I mean, what are they using this for? Do they look at your config (to get your email addy), then spam you with "relevant" stuff, based on the sites you visit?
:) (blatant plug, I know, I know....)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
I imagine though, that this could class as "Stalking" or "Harrasment" in many countries, simpoly becuase you are being "followed"... Any legal-type people able to comment on this?
Oh, if you want to beat them at their own game...
Alladvantage pay you (a small fee) to surf, in return they gather data about your surfing habits. You don't get spammed or anything, and I personally think it's pretty cool! Oh, if you sign up, put "GGZ 549" as your referer
Mong.
* Paul Madley
I completely disagree. You can't do the automation and development and integration of MSOffice, with SO or WP-Suite. Really.
:( ...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
The (abused) Macro / VB implementation was a god-send.
That "95%" don't do anything other than type a letter is just your opinion. Even my mother managed to set up Word so that it took some figures from an XL spread sheet once per week, and put them into a Word report.
Sure, MS products are bloated, becuase of the way the programming is done at MS, and sure, they are massively over priced. But many (more than that "5%") do need some, or many, of the features...
You got a "3" score because you were anti-MS, I stayed firmly at "1" because I dared to say that something (while not good) wasn't bad.
Sometimes, Slashdot really sucks.
Mong.
P.S. I'm running WM inside eXceed from Win98 - becuase it's the best soloution for me, not becuase I need to grow up and stop hating MS.
I'm having a bad day already
* Paul Madley
Incidentally (and a little off-topic), Corels Linux site got the /. effect only a few minutes after the story "broke" here. ...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
* Paul Madley
Nah, I had this discussion today actually. Even the Linux users here agree that Office is simply the most powerful and best integrated "suite" available. Neither Start nor WordPerfect suites are good enough to beat it. It's bloated, but the Office-bloat contains feature-packed substance.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Sorry.
But then, if WordPerfect Suite were FREE, then all the people who started with good old WordPerfect in the 80's would (hopefully) convert, and then the interest would prompt development and then it WOULD be as powerfull and usefull as MS Office... If you see what I'm driving at?
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Woohoo!
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Now I can write back to the Mexicana Chica who works here and explain CLEARLY and CONCISELY, that whilst very attractive and nice, I can't respond to her advances because I am already "with woman".
The last time I tried, Babelfish somehow made me inform her that I'd love to " kiss her making angry other woman".
Muy Bien!
Mong.
* Paul Madley
A *really* good BBS still exists, it's run by a group of Norwegians, and even has (fairly) regular visits from the author of BBBS, we have people from Freehive there, and people from GPhoto.org.
:)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
We also have MUDS there as well.
Check out the (dated)FIX pages for more info.
Sorry, I guess this was a blatant plug
Mong.
* Paul Madley
I agree totally, it's like "Oh, we can do all this theming stuff, it's really cool - oh by the way, you can't "quite" run this app yet, becuase X part of Y is pretty buggy and need 256mb to run".
;)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
We use Linux and BSD here for practically ever server, and have it on some desktops also. But we (for example) need browsers that support ALL of HTML4, ALL of JavaScript and run ALL(or at least most) Java Applets.
Oh, and the KDE-Gnome compatibility thing... you're running the SAME OS, okay your products are different in appearence, and to some (small IMHO) extent, in operation - but surely the same apps should run on either? It's not quite the same (I know) but using for example the Litestep shell instead of the standard Explorer shell on Windows DOESN'T mean you can't run certain apps.
Basically, I think the whole situation is still fairly amateurish, there's a lot of skilled and professional people involved right now (I know some of them), but something is not quite clicking.
I want Linux/KDE/Gnome to be the successes they deserve to be (they really do), but it's not really gonna happen if the present system isn't re-evaluated.
Hmm, wonder what the COREL release will be like?
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Erm, Europe is a whole lot bigger than England you know. In fact, the U.K is probably more likely to support an American firm, than any other European State, sorry... country ;)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Mong.
* Paul Madley
The above comment should be awarded a 5(Five) for being the most sycophantic thing ever written on SlashDot.
;)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
He's right however. Good coverage, with exactly the right level of bias
Bias? I meant "objectivity", or something...
Mong.
* Paul Madley
[ Appeal Court, avoid getting involved ]
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Can an appeals court actually refuse to get involved? I know we're talking about M$ here, but surely the laws you have in America provide you with adequate rights to appeal?
What do people think the final ruling will be btw? Are we looking at lots of "Baby-Bills", like you have "Baby Bells"? That'd make sense.
I hope all this litigation doesn't end up putting MS out of business, hard as it is to stomach, they were one of the reasons why computing became widespread. Now if only they'd get back to their old ideal of making good software...
Mong.
* Paul Madley
People looking for cheap Alpha equipment should try the UK, like I said in a comment a few messages back...
:)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
I've had a quick "surf", but can't find anything - but trust me, cheap Alphas DO exist
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Off Topic, but...
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
You can get an Alpha box, and cheap. No... seriously...
In the UK, a lot of companies (particularly Local Government) are selling off "old" equipment, drifting away from the centralised approach.
An excellent example is my friend who was working for ICI (big Chemical company). He got a really nice SPARC, with a 21" screen etc for a few pounds (UK Sterling).
I imagine some idiots are also letting go of Alphas for similar prices. At the place I worked (Local Gov), they were literally THROWING away machines, I nearly got me a huge VAX system, but realised that I had nowhere to put it, and probably no use for it...
But anyway, you should probably "surf" and see if any surplus suppliers got there hands on any of these...
Mong.
* Paul Madley
For what it's worth, the particular theories I could feasibly subscribe to goes something like this:
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
We perceive time according to the cycles of the Sun. As we are finite beings, we only see time, creation and life as being linear. It is certainly true/probable that Dinosaurs et al existed and died and became oil many, many years ago. However, what if our perception of "time" is wrong, indeed what if there is no "time". Just as we live a finite existence, what about beings who don't? We possibly can't percieve them, them us. A tree (asfaik) doesn't die unless something causes it too. The point I'm making is that maybe there was no initial "push", whether Godly, or Atomically. There maybe don't have to be reasons for being here. Have people considered what was "there" before the Big Bang? Nothing can't become something, without there being something in the nothing. Comprende?
The other option could be that we WERE created by some superior force. The old idea of "alien" intervention makes a LOT of sense, in the late 20th (C), we are capable of dramatically altering life via "tampering" with DNA. In a hundred years, maybe we will be able to create it... Thanks to the Dark Ages, humanity is probably about 200 years behind schedule, that is; no inovation or exploration really occured then - it was a complete standstill. Maybe if we had used those 200 years, we'd be in the position to create life already. Now note that many, many planets are many, many years/decades/millenia... older than our own. Go figure.
Thirdly, maybe it's all dream, or maybe we're a really advanced computer program - Sim City 9000?
Hard to say.
The only thing I will say, is that most of the worlds religions are dumb. People blindly following a creed usually passed to them from their family/school. Many religions died out at the hands of others. Just becuase Christianity is probably the most "dominant", it maybe isn't right. Religions tend to have grown from tribal stories and folk lore. Maybe in 2000 years, there'll be a Saint Jean Luc Picard, or a Prophet Yoda. After all, some guy turned water into wine, and another guy instructs a giant beetle to push the sun into the sky.
Hmm, I'd best get some series cermaic plating... I feel a well directed thunderbolt, coming right this way...
Mo.
* Paul Madley
Yeah Yeah, now would any of yo BJJ people like to go up against a top class Muay Thai fighter? Ha!
:)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
In a recent(ish) publicity event, ten of the worlds best Kung Fu Masters, met ten of the best Muay Thai Fighters. The results?
Nine of the Kung Fu people got knocked out in the opening round. The 10th Kung Fu guy submitted in the 2nd.
I'm not being all "My form is better than yours", but when you have to mess somebody up, Muay Thai is the weapon of choice
Now, if this isn't offtopic, I don't know what is!
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Valid point. UK T.V is much better resoloution than US T.V. And now with Digital, we're miles ahead. When I watch something on video (brand new Mitsubishi video player), the difference between a video and a T.V broadcast is massive.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
I got told that DVD is similar in quality to S-VHS. Anyone know if this is true?
We're RIGHT off topic now.
Mong.
* Paul Madley
No, the future certianly isn't ADC. It's more like video-on-demand and stuff like that. DVD won't be able to compete, in under 10 years time, when we all have the ability to just stream a full movie into our house. It's already happening in the UK now, with the latest DigitalTV advance.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
I certainly wouldn't invest in ADC. That'd be silly.
Anyway, we've got completley off topic here!
Mong.
* Paul Madley
The evils of the US? Invading our hallowed shores? Never! We will never be overcome! We shall fight them on the beaches! We shall fight them on the...
:)
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Oops, sorry
Seriously, I don't think DVD (as it stands) is good enough for it to be mainstream here. No offense, but just because lots of people have it there, doesn't mean it's a Good Thing(tm). I mean, lots of people use Windows (including me), but this is certainly not a Good Thing(tm). We all use VHS, but Beta was by *far* a better format.
I'm not sold on DVD (yet), but I look forward to the time when my PC can be just as good as my TV/Video setup.
Mong.
* Paul Madley
I live in the UK, we're a very backward place!
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
No seriously, here in the UK, electronics (and everything else) are pretty expensive. I'd hazard that less than 1% of the population has access to DVD. I mean, only about 3.5 houses in 20 has a PC of any kind (I read that someplace). Only the very expensive machines come with DVD, also we all tend to use 14/15 monitors, which aren't too nice for video.
Video stores will not stock much in the way of DVD here I think. Not in the near future anyway.
Mong.
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Lemme guess, the ppl who publish The Matrix are owned by one of the big electronics corporations? Lemme guess, they think we should all have 10bit players. Lemme guess, they think "Well, The Matrix was a big hit amongst Geeks", Lemme guess, they go "We'll make Geeks buy these 10bit players by putting the'r favourite movie on this format".
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
I'm good at guessing, me.
Mong.
* Paul Madley
Not quite ON topic I guess, but; Will The Matrix eventually be released on video? I get conflicting stories you see. One says "No", one says "it already is in the States", and the other says "It will, but not until the DVD has stopped selling real well".
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
I'd imagine the last one to be true myself.
And I,(this may be Flame Bait) don't want to get a DVD because I don't think theres's much of a future for it. Sorry!
Mong.
* Paul Madley