I know Skype isn't FOSS, but the latest Linux beta for skype does video chat with windows.
I was pleasantly surprised when I tried it last week from my linux platform.
It also does n-way calls. And runs on Linux, Windows and Mac. Something to follow up on? The last time I checked (about 2 days ago, admittedly, so maybe something has changed) a three way video conference did not work in skype. Maybe there is a way to make it happen that I'm missing, but I sure couldn't figure it out. If you have a link, I'd love to see it.
As another LDS-born (for non-LDS, that simply means my parents were LDS, and I was baptized at age 8--I've since done a LOT of personal searching to make my own decisions about the church, thank you very much), I've read some of the older versions of the Handbook.
My guess is that the real reason is that this is simply a copyrighted document and that its more about that than anything. I've never really understood the church's policy on keeping the GHI out of general circulation, but I don't really care. Book One (which is what this is) doesn't have anything major in it. I'd wager that there are a LOT of the LDS sladshdotters that have had a chance to read it for one reason or another. Generally speaking, any LDS member that wants a peek at it can ask their bishop if they can read what the handbook says about a specific subject, and generally most bishops will say yes.
The reason its private? I have not idea, but I've never really cared. Is wikiLeaks doing the 'right thing' here? I don't really care. Is the LDS church doing the 'right thing' here? Who knows. I have a suspicion that this is one of those areas where its the lawyers that the church hires making a decision, rather than the President of the church. That's just how it goes.
It sort of skips ads. Not intelligently. I have it, and the button on the remote can be set to one of several distinct time frames, and that's about it. It's a 'dumb' feature in that it doesn't try to figure out how long the ad is or anything, it just moves forward a set amount of time. I can't remember off the top of my head what the options are, but generally you can get through ads in about two or three clicks. It's a bit annoying, but not "I'm going to kill the programmer" annoying.
No the "I'm going to kill the programmer after I hunt him down and torture him for three weeks" 'feature' that FiOS has is the general buginess of the on-demand stuff. You push the button and about 1 out of 3 times it will simply get confused and refuse to give you access to anything for about 2 minutes. If you are scheduled to record ANYTHING during that time, you are screwed because it will not start recording, and it will not let you fix that fact either (grrr).
Another annoyance where I'd love to hunt someone down is the recently discovered 'feature' that means if you are going to watch something on DVR, but have 2 shows scheduled to record, you can't have it paused at the moment they are scheduled to start recording, or it will malfunction and fail to record, but if you try to fix this like 2 seconds after the fact because you've realized what's happening, you can't because the machine thinks its already recording (but isn't) and it will only give you the option to cancel the recording (which doesn't work). Argh!
That said, overall, if you learn to avoid the one bug, and that starting to watch something On Demand just before a taping is scheduled to start is probably a bad idea, then you'll be okay. Annoying (as in, let me shoot someone so their replacement will have motivation to fix it), but not a deal breaker, because overall they have an excellent selection of channels for the price, and their internet service is quite good and very reliable (at least it has been for me so far), which is something I really appreciate. I've never hit bandwidth caps or shaping or anything, and I'd know--I use torrents and isos quite frequently, so there.
The problem with many of the alternate systems is that I have invariably found that while I often like the rules well enough, what I really want is a generic system that lets me create my own setting. I want flexibility. The ability to create my own worlds, classes, races and whatnot. In other words, D&D is a kernel, more than a complete system. Sure they've got some things that are neat and the default settings are nice, but sometimes rolling your own distribution is really cool.
Unfortunately, it's like Hasbro bought gentoo and doesn't know it. They think they bought Microsoft, but they didn't really. The discovery is leaving them a bit confused, and now they've spent millions of dollars developing a new version, only to realize that people still like the old version for some really valid reasons. People don't like change.
Are you _certain_ the cats hate it? I mean they are cats. They may just artfully disdain it, as per their usual stance. Cats don't usually hate much of anything. Frankly I think if the cats had decided that they hated Vista, we'd see that microsoft would already be in flames by now. No my friend, I fear the day cats actually wake from their millenia of apathy and begin to actually hate. When that happens we shall all die a painful death. Their studied indifference to our human and insignificant lives is vastly preferred to any notice that they might take of us.
You're right that John McCain is not an enemy of America, even though liberals love to paint him that way. It is unfortunate that despite that, John McCain is still a poor choice for president.
War hero or not, and despite all his ability, McCain is a poor choice. I do not waint McCain as president. But even more than that, I absolutely can't stand the idea of Hillary as president. Obama I can live with, but McCain and Hillary both make me sick for vastly different reasons. I don't like Obama's positions much, but I like his personal positions. Too bad I like him MORE before the whole Wright crap.
Actually, wouldn't that be more a case of writing the Queen's English?
Honestly, though, I've always liked the British spelling of a lot of words as opposed to the Americanized version that I've grown up with. I seems classier in most instances.
Basically this is my question: what is the number of linux/BSD applications that, when recompiled, will simply work under Haiku? Inkscape? Open Office? The Gimp? Give me knowledge, please. I really need to know more about this, and without that information I simply cannot know if this is even worth installing for a take around the block.
(Do I get PHP? MySQL? Apache?)
What will I get for my effort? That is the $10,000,000 question.
First, as everyone should know: you never, ever sign a contract for royalties on net profit. There will never be ANY net. Period. It is far too easy to make that happen, especially if you are not on equal footing. It doesn't metter what the relationship is, if you are signing a contract where you get royalties for anything, it is always on the gross revenue, never anything else. End of story.
Second. Studios lie about their revenue. The WGA strikes have shown this, and everyone knows it. Everyone knows that they lie about revenue. Essentially what you shuold be doing when you saying when you sign a contract with the studio is this: I get to choose the highest available estimate of revenue as my basis for what you owe me on royalties. If you put out figures claiming the film has grossed $1.2b at the box, then we go by that figure, unless you have other figures that are higher. You can't claim one figure publicly and then sell me on another, lower, figure in private. On the other hand, those in estate situations like this should be able to to demand open accounting on projects. I know I would. If you sell the movie rights to a book, then you should probably say something like: I need to have access to the accounting procedures for complete independent review.
Third, I am also ambiguous about copyright length. I strongly maintain that authors, even those doing work for hire, should retain private copyright. Corporations should not own copyrights in the same way that private authors do. Who then would own the story for Pixar's movie 'Toy Story'? I don't know. I think that when a team of individuals are doing a collaborative work, then the corporation can own the copyright for a period of time not greater than 25 years (or some other period of time). This gives the studio sufficient time to reap profit from works, but then allows them to become public domain in an appropriate fashion. Individuals or private teams (say co-authored works) become copyrighted for the life of the author or primary author. After this time, the estate may continue to produce related material and any new material is under copyright of the new author using their life as the benchmark. I think provisions for the immediate descendents garnering automatic royalties for major deritive works would be appropriate, which would be mean that Tolkien's children would get money for the production of anything made related to Middle Earth, but they would have no control over what actually got made. It would then be up to consumers to decide what was worthy of purchase and what was crap. A rare and shocking concept, true, but I think an important one.
I would happily take the Ubuntu/Linux (I really am distro nuetral), but right now MS Office IS _better_ IMHO than the competition in terms of usability. I have no games that I really care about that use windows only. No software other than SPSS/EQS (statistics, gotta have it), and frankly that's it. Otherwise, I am free to go to Linux. So why haven't I? Well. It's complicated.
First there's time.
I can't be bothered to take the time to make the switch. I have a LOT of data. Making the switch would take a LOT of TIME.
Second, there are just a few things that I want to make sure are sorted out. I want to see how KDE 4 shakes out. I am waiting for 8.04 to come out, and then I'll go with that, I think.
Finally, that's only on my desktop. My laptop is still a no go. When I can fire up Ubuntu or ANY OTHER linux distriubution and flawlessly connect to my AP use WPA (or WPA2) on a hidden SSID and change my sitekey whenever I feel like it, THEN I'll be happy. I don't care about the openness of the drivers, and I don't care about anything else. I absolutely CANNOT be in a situation where the solution to make this work requires a download! The drivers for MY laptop (and that means EVERY wireless card) MUST be ON the install disk and working by default. Period. Assume that if the hardware is present, then the user wants it to function. If it requires a non-free driver then ASK about it during the install, but I absolutely WILL NOT switch my primary mobile OS to ANYTHING that does not handle wireless. Right now, I'm not even talking flawlessly. I'd settle for connecting and serving up pages with any frequency at all. I absolutely cannot get my laptop to connect under: Ubuntu {6.10, 7.04, 7.10, 8.04 alpha 4}, Fedora {8,9}, OpenSuse 10, Freespire (whatever most recent is), and others.
I have a compaq presario v3019us (amd turion, nvidia 6150 go, and broadcom 43xx wireless [heart of wireless problem]). I have tried numerous solutions, and NONE of them have worked reliably. I have actually had it working, updated the system and had it FAIL after update (argh!). Again, the FIRST distribution that can make this function out of the box, will have my support. Period. Get it right, get it smart. I thought Ubuntu had it right, but they don't, and they need to fix it.
Get on it folks!
Oh, and no, MS doesn't really care about fixing piracy. Otherwise it would be simple enough: the corporate keys and campus installs would be much more controlled. As it is, I have absolutely no intention of ever purchasing windows becuase I currently have a legal licensed copy that I don't need to pay for. As long that is the case, I won't ever purchase it. Period ad infinitum.
Ah yes, another tale of the sordid evil coverups by the vile LDS leadership. Complete with murder. Yet the person you are replying to is basing his comments on something you are obviously either not doing or choosing to ignore: personal experience. The data, from lots of people who have met us, states that by and large Mormons are essentially trying to be good people. Then you get books like this.
Never mind that there are mixed comments and links to refutations on Amazon. Never mind that the book itself is not content to simply detail the case but must also make further accusations against the church (thus showing that they have an agenda beyond simply giving out the truth). Frankly, I don't mind finding out or researching this type of information, but I don't, as a rule, purchase anti-Mormon literature (it galls me to financially support people that are making a living by tearing down something that I find important--it would be much like financially supporting a murderer who wrote a book about it). But I will read it in order to understand what they are saying and to know exactly where some others are getting their information so that when I am confronted with it I know how to respond.
I need to do even more research on this guy, but from what I've read so far, this is another non-case.
I think the shock of the century would be if Romney won and then said, "you know what, screw all you guys, Ron Paul is my running mate".
I'd love to see the look on McCain's face. It'd be priceless. I'd also love to see how the internet fan boys reacted to that.
Or, I'd love to see McCain do something similar. A big "screw you all" to the establishment. In fact I could actually see McCain doing this. It'd be hilarious.
Is it too early to send a petition to both the McCain and Romney campaigns asking them to select Ron Paul as their running mate?
Yes, but what does a microwave do to a HDD? Of course, the HDD does have the reverse damage feedback spell enabled, so it will probably kill the microwave too, but if you were in a hurry to kill sensitive data, that's a risk I'd take...
Telling the gov't why your HDD was in the microwave might be a little trickier...
Then there are the missionaries who will feed the hungry even if they won't convert. Or who feed the hungry and don't ask about your faith at all.
Which is how it should be.
Here's how all churches should do service (and this is how I do service). See a need for help. Donate time, energy, money, food, talent, whatever is necessary. Leave. That's it. If people ask questions, you simply state, "I believe that this is what Christ (or whatever rolemodel you prefer) would do/have me do, so I'm doing it. What else can I do to help?" If they ask more about where they can learn about your church, you say, "Well, once we have this problem fixed, our services are at this time. We'd love for you to visit. Right now, let's get this mess taken care of."
That's how charity should be done. Oh, and you don't advertise. Which is why some churches give millions in aid each year, but almost no one knows about it. Why? Because they don't advertise. Frankly, what MS is doing is worthless except that there may be some slight benefit to the recipient, but even that is hard to tell. I would rather see MS join up with a bevy of other IT companies and form an IT aid charity that was tech-neutral. This would be more appropriate, and more helpful.
Actually, except for raster images (eg, the friggin pictures of stuff), I think that.svg should be mandatory. Why? As good as PNG is, it leaves a lot to be desired and it does not scale well. On the other hand,.svg will scale perfectly, allowing features like zooming to be much more effective. This would also kick svg editors in to full gear. Right now I do not hesitate to say that inkscape is the BEST svg editor available. Some other editors offer some features that inkscape does not, but it is extremely flexible and powerful. It does have some drawbacks, especially once you get into highly complex and large images (I've got a 4.4mb.svg that renders into an ENORMOUS.bmp or.PNG [120MB+ & 25MB+, respectively] that is an absolute beast to work with because it is so complex. I've got literally thousands of cloned (not copied) objects. Before I started cloning the SVG file was over 20MB, but I dropped that down a LOT when I switched to cloning objects (and that took a lot of work, but when you are using a page file just for the program you are working with to have enough memory, let alone the OS, you need to do SOMETHING).)
Personally, I prefer inkscape to any other image creation program I've used extensively (although my stint with Photoship as a image creation tool is limited). Fireworks, illustrator, gimp (ahem), and even the stuff from Xara, are all inferior in a number of regards, and especially since the only other free one is the Gimp, I'm convinced that the ROI is pretty much unbeatable.
Now there are a few things you can do in each of those programs that can't be done (directly) in inkscape (such as multiple pages or html auto-generation of drop down menus), but these are special cases.
I may be wrong, but I thought the point of a public key was that it didn't need to be secure. I publish my public key on my website (this is hypothetical-I don't really, though I should), and then ANYONE can use it to send me encrypted data. Then, to decrypt it, you need the private key. Period. No one should ever have your private key for any reason. If they do, then you need to ditch it and the public key and start over, as you have been compromised. There should never be a reason to send your private key to anyone. If you need to transfer it to a new computer, I suggest using a usb key to temporarily store it, but you'd have to ask the experts on how to do that.
Re:Math is "Free", MY LILY-WHITE ASS.
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OR, as an alternate hypothesis, they are abrogating those very skills which make them qualified to teach (critical thinking, scientific method) in order to appear more like the group on whose good will their success depends (eg, getting tenure) because they know that failure to do so will result in expulsion from the group.
Basic psychology research indicates that people will do rather extreme things to remain within the group. If you think, perhaps intuitively, that because someone is more intelligent that they will be immune to these problems, then you are mistaken. It hits everyone. Now, are there good sound reasons to be marxist, although there are also good reasons to be capitalist or whatever. These reasons [for whatever philosophy] are commonly bandied about, and just as commonly torn down by people, sometimes rightly so, other times not.
When you meet someone who claims to apply the 'scientific method' to every aspect (or even nearly every aspect), be warned--they are lying. Perhaps not intentionally, but still. People simply do not have the cognitive capacity to live that way. Instead we are run by a shortcut machine that we call a brain. It's purpose seems to be to discover relationships between items and provide shortcuts to those relationships. Thus humans are REALLY good at pattern recognition (think faces, reading, etc) even with significant degradation--especially in visual patterns. This is also what leads to group stereotypes (well, that and rumormongering).
The premise that professors are marxist hypocrits is another example of this--to a degree it is probably true that a higher portion of professors are communist or socialist than in the general population--except in certain departments. In the business department at most universities, for instance, there are plenty of capitalist pigs, while the concentration of communist bedwetters [see, I've insulted both sides now--happy?] in liberal arts departments is probably near 104% [adjunct professors and all that].
But to be on topic, the point that textbooks are overpriced is true. The cost of tuition is also quite high-although I would never argue that professors are overpaid in most instances. Quite the opposite. But since universities are now required to maintain expensive sporting facilities and subsidize the cost of producing the great American pacifier (professional sports), they can't afford to pay the professors more (but the $ddd,ddd+ they spend on the football coach is necessary).
Personally, I think education SHOULD be free, but since that is impractical it appears, I'm going to have to repay my student loans anyway.
Which is why I am not a computer scientist--or maybe I don't know these things because I'm not a computer scientist.
I still maintain that if we _could_ move away from binary, it would have some serious benefits.
What about optical processing/storage/transmission? Would that work?
By the way, though, note that I do not, and would not, suggest a move to base-10. base 4, 8, 16, or whatever worked within the system would be my preference. With that in mind, base 10 would make the whole argument about hdd space obsolete.
You don't happen to be darkonc's girlfriend do you?
What, oh different 3 countries...unless one of you is lying.
So, are you, or are you not Darkonc's girlfriend?
Of course, this is Slashdot, so we have to guess that if you are not, then Darkonc is lying about having a girlfriend...unless there are pics, of course:)
Paying someone to argue with you will be cheaper in the long-run, and certainly by the time the children are old enough to actually argue, rather than simply contradict you (see Monty Python for the difference). Certainly by the time your children are old enough to actually argue, then you will have forgotten whatever it was you wanted to argue about.
Slight correction: cars/explosives/sugar etc do not work in base 10--humans do. This is likely (my own personal theory, nothing more) a reflection of the fact that we have 10 readily available digits that make counting quite simple if you use base 10. I rather strongly suspect that if humans had 12 digits, then we would use base 12 instead. The reason computers use base 2 is analogous: there are 2 states for the transistors. I rather suspect that at some point we will figure out a simple and reliable state system that lets computers use base 10, 12, or even 16, and they will process much more information in the same number of units (can't say digits or bits--maybe hits? hexadecimal digits?). That might make them more efficient if (and I stress the iffiness of this) the energy to switch states for a particular amount of information is less than the energy to convey that same information in the lesser base.
To illustrate, hexadecimal can store in two units 16^2 different states, or peices of information--never mind what they are. Binary requires 8 (16=2^4; 4*2=8) bits to convey the exact same amount of information. Thus if switchings states costs x in binary and anything less than 8x for hexadecimal (I think--someone else might want to run through this--I am not an engineer, mathemetician or anything like that, just a lowly psychologist with delusions of computer science), then the hexadecimal is more efficient,and would potentially result in vast energy savings. Now we just need to figure out how to make this happen. I leave that as an exercise for the reader.
I'm sorry, but while Led Zeppelin is good (I'm sure not going to argue), there are a certain percentage of their songs that I am convinced one must be stoned/high/drunk/etc in order to enjoy them properly. Since I am an abstainer, I don't really ever enjoy those songs. Not that they are bad songs, but they are not as good as the rest to those of us who don't use drugs of any type other than medicinal purposes.
The rest of your argument is unaffected by this, however, and I agree.
The RIAA is obselete on about 18 different levels, only 12 of which are potentially understandable.
I'm sorry, but I absolutely have to post this: Capsaicin is alcohol soluble, which is NOT the same as fat-soluble. It also happens to be fat-soluble, but I am reasonably certain that alcohol is more effective. So if you really need to stop the burn, have a drink of vodka or some such (or rinse & spit if you don't want it passing through the digestive tract). I don't know if something like listerine would work or not.
Milk or olive oil would help, but not as effectively as alcohol. Maybe try eating a bit of cheese (which doesn't help that much, since I've had habanero cheese that was plenty hot).
Enjoy.
(BTW, I am posting at the expense of mod points-sorry to those I modded up.)
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I was pleasantly surprised when I tried it last week from my linux platform.
It also does n-way calls. And runs on Linux, Windows and Mac. Something to follow up on? The last time I checked (about 2 days ago, admittedly, so maybe something has changed) a three way video conference did not work in skype. Maybe there is a way to make it happen that I'm missing, but I sure couldn't figure it out. If you have a link, I'd love to see it.
As another LDS-born (for non-LDS, that simply means my parents were LDS, and I was baptized at age 8--I've since done a LOT of personal searching to make my own decisions about the church, thank you very much), I've read some of the older versions of the Handbook.
My guess is that the real reason is that this is simply a copyrighted document and that its more about that than anything. I've never really understood the church's policy on keeping the GHI out of general circulation, but I don't really care. Book One (which is what this is) doesn't have anything major in it. I'd wager that there are a LOT of the LDS sladshdotters that have had a chance to read it for one reason or another. Generally speaking, any LDS member that wants a peek at it can ask their bishop if they can read what the handbook says about a specific subject, and generally most bishops will say yes.
The reason its private? I have not idea, but I've never really cared. Is wikiLeaks doing the 'right thing' here? I don't really care. Is the LDS church doing the 'right thing' here? Who knows. I have a suspicion that this is one of those areas where its the lawyers that the church hires making a decision, rather than the President of the church. That's just how it goes.
It sort of skips ads. Not intelligently. I have it, and the button on the remote can be set to one of several distinct time frames, and that's about it. It's a 'dumb' feature in that it doesn't try to figure out how long the ad is or anything, it just moves forward a set amount of time. I can't remember off the top of my head what the options are, but generally you can get through ads in about two or three clicks. It's a bit annoying, but not "I'm going to kill the programmer" annoying.
No the "I'm going to kill the programmer after I hunt him down and torture him for three weeks" 'feature' that FiOS has is the general buginess of the on-demand stuff. You push the button and about 1 out of 3 times it will simply get confused and refuse to give you access to anything for about 2 minutes. If you are scheduled to record ANYTHING during that time, you are screwed because it will not start recording, and it will not let you fix that fact either (grrr).
Another annoyance where I'd love to hunt someone down is the recently discovered 'feature' that means if you are going to watch something on DVR, but have 2 shows scheduled to record, you can't have it paused at the moment they are scheduled to start recording, or it will malfunction and fail to record, but if you try to fix this like 2 seconds after the fact because you've realized what's happening, you can't because the machine thinks its already recording (but isn't) and it will only give you the option to cancel the recording (which doesn't work). Argh!
That said, overall, if you learn to avoid the one bug, and that starting to watch something On Demand just before a taping is scheduled to start is probably a bad idea, then you'll be okay. Annoying (as in, let me shoot someone so their replacement will have motivation to fix it), but not a deal breaker, because overall they have an excellent selection of channels for the price, and their internet service is quite good and very reliable (at least it has been for me so far), which is something I really appreciate. I've never hit bandwidth caps or shaping or anything, and I'd know--I use torrents and isos quite frequently, so there.
The problem with many of the alternate systems is that I have invariably found that while I often like the rules well enough, what I really want is a generic system that lets me create my own setting. I want flexibility. The ability to create my own worlds, classes, races and whatnot. In other words, D&D is a kernel, more than a complete system. Sure they've got some things that are neat and the default settings are nice, but sometimes rolling your own distribution is really cool.
Unfortunately, it's like Hasbro bought gentoo and doesn't know it. They think they bought Microsoft, but they didn't really. The discovery is leaving them a bit confused, and now they've spent millions of dollars developing a new version, only to realize that people still like the old version for some really valid reasons. People don't like change.
Are you _certain_ the cats hate it? I mean they are cats. They may just artfully disdain it, as per their usual stance. Cats don't usually hate much of anything. Frankly I think if the cats had decided that they hated Vista, we'd see that microsoft would already be in flames by now. No my friend, I fear the day cats actually wake from their millenia of apathy and begin to actually hate. When that happens we shall all die a painful death. Their studied indifference to our human and insignificant lives is vastly preferred to any notice that they might take of us.
You're right that John McCain is not an enemy of America, even though liberals love to paint him that way. It is unfortunate that despite that, John McCain is still a poor choice for president.
War hero or not, and despite all his ability, McCain is a poor choice. I do not waint McCain as president. But even more than that, I absolutely can't stand the idea of Hillary as president. Obama I can live with, but McCain and Hillary both make me sick for vastly different reasons. I don't like Obama's positions much, but I like his personal positions. Too bad I like him MORE before the whole Wright crap.
Actually, wouldn't that be more a case of writing the Queen's English?
Honestly, though, I've always liked the British spelling of a lot of words as opposed to the Americanized version that I've grown up with. I seems classier in most instances.
really, because I'm out in doylestown, and I have it. 5/5. and I'm very happy.
of course I forgot to pay my bill for a couple months, so they aren't happy with me...but it is still working, so whatever.
I was going to ask the same question.
Basically this is my question: what is the number of linux/BSD applications that, when recompiled, will simply work under Haiku? Inkscape? Open Office? The Gimp? Give me knowledge, please. I really need to know more about this, and without that information I simply cannot know if this is even worth installing for a take around the block.
(Do I get PHP? MySQL? Apache?)
What will I get for my effort? That is the $10,000,000 question.
First, as everyone should know: you never, ever sign a contract for royalties on net profit. There will never be ANY net. Period. It is far too easy to make that happen, especially if you are not on equal footing. It doesn't metter what the relationship is, if you are signing a contract where you get royalties for anything, it is always on the gross revenue, never anything else. End of story.
Second. Studios lie about their revenue. The WGA strikes have shown this, and everyone knows it. Everyone knows that they lie about revenue. Essentially what you shuold be doing when you saying when you sign a contract with the studio is this: I get to choose the highest available estimate of revenue as my basis for what you owe me on royalties. If you put out figures claiming the film has grossed $1.2b at the box, then we go by that figure, unless you have other figures that are higher. You can't claim one figure publicly and then sell me on another, lower, figure in private. On the other hand, those in estate situations like this should be able to to demand open accounting on projects. I know I would. If you sell the movie rights to a book, then you should probably say something like: I need to have access to the accounting procedures for complete independent review.
Third, I am also ambiguous about copyright length. I strongly maintain that authors, even those doing work for hire, should retain private copyright. Corporations should not own copyrights in the same way that private authors do. Who then would own the story for Pixar's movie 'Toy Story'? I don't know. I think that when a team of individuals are doing a collaborative work, then the corporation can own the copyright for a period of time not greater than 25 years (or some other period of time). This gives the studio sufficient time to reap profit from works, but then allows them to become public domain in an appropriate fashion. Individuals or private teams (say co-authored works) become copyrighted for the life of the author or primary author. After this time, the estate may continue to produce related material and any new material is under copyright of the new author using their life as the benchmark. I think provisions for the immediate descendents garnering automatic royalties for major deritive works would be appropriate, which would be mean that Tolkien's children would get money for the production of anything made related to Middle Earth, but they would have no control over what actually got made. It would then be up to consumers to decide what was worthy of purchase and what was crap. A rare and shocking concept, true, but I think an important one.
I would happily take the Ubuntu/Linux (I really am distro nuetral), but right now MS Office IS _better_ IMHO than the competition in terms of usability. I have no games that I really care about that use windows only. No software other than SPSS/EQS (statistics, gotta have it), and frankly that's it. Otherwise, I am free to go to Linux. So why haven't I? Well. It's complicated.
First there's time.
I can't be bothered to take the time to make the switch. I have a LOT of data. Making the switch would take a LOT of TIME.
Second, there are just a few things that I want to make sure are sorted out. I want to see how KDE 4 shakes out. I am waiting for 8.04 to come out, and then I'll go with that, I think.
Finally, that's only on my desktop. My laptop is still a no go. When I can fire up Ubuntu or ANY OTHER linux distriubution and flawlessly connect to my AP use WPA (or WPA2) on a hidden SSID and change my sitekey whenever I feel like it, THEN I'll be happy. I don't care about the openness of the drivers, and I don't care about anything else. I absolutely CANNOT be in a situation where the solution to make this work requires a download! The drivers for MY laptop (and that means EVERY wireless card) MUST be ON the install disk and working by default. Period. Assume that if the hardware is present, then the user wants it to function. If it requires a non-free driver then ASK about it during the install, but I absolutely WILL NOT switch my primary mobile OS to ANYTHING that does not handle wireless. Right now, I'm not even talking flawlessly. I'd settle for connecting and serving up pages with any frequency at all. I absolutely cannot get my laptop to connect under: Ubuntu {6.10, 7.04, 7.10, 8.04 alpha 4}, Fedora {8,9}, OpenSuse 10, Freespire (whatever most recent is), and others.
I have a compaq presario v3019us (amd turion, nvidia 6150 go, and broadcom 43xx wireless [heart of wireless problem]). I have tried numerous solutions, and NONE of them have worked reliably. I have actually had it working, updated the system and had it FAIL after update (argh!). Again, the FIRST distribution that can make this function out of the box, will have my support. Period. Get it right, get it smart. I thought Ubuntu had it right, but they don't, and they need to fix it.
Get on it folks!
Oh, and no, MS doesn't really care about fixing piracy. Otherwise it would be simple enough: the corporate keys and campus installs would be much more controlled. As it is, I have absolutely no intention of ever purchasing windows becuase I currently have a legal licensed copy that I don't need to pay for. As long that is the case, I won't ever purchase it. Period ad infinitum.
Ah yes, another tale of the sordid evil coverups by the vile LDS leadership. Complete with murder. Yet the person you are replying to is basing his comments on something you are obviously either not doing or choosing to ignore: personal experience. The data, from lots of people who have met us, states that by and large Mormons are essentially trying to be good people. Then you get books like this.
Never mind that there are mixed comments and links to refutations on Amazon. Never mind that the book itself is not content to simply detail the case but must also make further accusations against the church (thus showing that they have an agenda beyond simply giving out the truth). Frankly, I don't mind finding out or researching this type of information, but I don't, as a rule, purchase anti-Mormon literature (it galls me to financially support people that are making a living by tearing down something that I find important--it would be much like financially supporting a murderer who wrote a book about it). But I will read it in order to understand what they are saying and to know exactly where some others are getting their information so that when I am confronted with it I know how to respond.
I need to do even more research on this guy, but from what I've read so far, this is another non-case.
I think the shock of the century would be if Romney won and then said, "you know what, screw all you guys, Ron Paul is my running mate".
I'd love to see the look on McCain's face. It'd be priceless. I'd also love to see how the internet fan boys reacted to that.
Or, I'd love to see McCain do something similar. A big "screw you all" to the establishment. In fact I could actually see McCain doing this. It'd be hilarious.
Is it too early to send a petition to both the McCain and Romney campaigns asking them to select Ron Paul as their running mate?
Yes, but what does a microwave do to a HDD? Of course, the HDD does have the reverse damage feedback spell enabled, so it will probably kill the microwave too, but if you were in a hurry to kill sensitive data, that's a risk I'd take...
Telling the gov't why your HDD was in the microwave might be a little trickier...
Then there are the missionaries who will feed the hungry even if they won't convert. Or who feed the hungry and don't ask about your faith at all.
Which is how it should be.
Here's how all churches should do service (and this is how I do service). See a need for help. Donate time, energy, money, food, talent, whatever is necessary. Leave. That's it. If people ask questions, you simply state, "I believe that this is what Christ (or whatever rolemodel you prefer) would do/have me do, so I'm doing it. What else can I do to help?" If they ask more about where they can learn about your church, you say, "Well, once we have this problem fixed, our services are at this time. We'd love for you to visit. Right now, let's get this mess taken care of."
That's how charity should be done. Oh, and you don't advertise. Which is why some churches give millions in aid each year, but almost no one knows about it. Why? Because they don't advertise. Frankly, what MS is doing is worthless except that there may be some slight benefit to the recipient, but even that is hard to tell. I would rather see MS join up with a bevy of other IT companies and form an IT aid charity that was tech-neutral. This would be more appropriate, and more helpful.
Actually, except for raster images (eg, the friggin pictures of stuff), I think that .svg should be mandatory. Why? As good as PNG is, it leaves a lot to be desired and it does not scale well. On the other hand, .svg will scale perfectly, allowing features like zooming to be much more effective. This would also kick svg editors in to full gear. Right now I do not hesitate to say that inkscape is the BEST svg editor available. Some other editors offer some features that inkscape does not, but it is extremely flexible and powerful. It does have some drawbacks, especially once you get into highly complex and large images (I've got a 4.4mb .svg that renders into an ENORMOUS .bmp or .PNG [120MB+ & 25MB+, respectively] that is an absolute beast to work with because it is so complex. I've got literally thousands of cloned (not copied) objects. Before I started cloning the SVG file was over 20MB, but I dropped that down a LOT when I switched to cloning objects (and that took a lot of work, but when you are using a page file just for the program you are working with to have enough memory, let alone the OS, you need to do SOMETHING).)
Personally, I prefer inkscape to any other image creation program I've used extensively (although my stint with Photoship as a image creation tool is limited). Fireworks, illustrator, gimp (ahem), and even the stuff from Xara, are all inferior in a number of regards, and especially since the only other free one is the Gimp, I'm convinced that the ROI is pretty much unbeatable.
Now there are a few things you can do in each of those programs that can't be done (directly) in inkscape (such as multiple pages or html auto-generation of drop down menus), but these are special cases.
Graphic designers may disagree, YMMV.
Sending public keys in a secure way? Hmmm?
I may be wrong, but I thought the point of a public key was that it didn't need to be secure. I publish my public key on my website (this is hypothetical-I don't really, though I should), and then ANYONE can use it to send me encrypted data. Then, to decrypt it, you need the private key. Period. No one should ever have your private key for any reason. If they do, then you need to ditch it and the public key and start over, as you have been compromised. There should never be a reason to send your private key to anyone. If you need to transfer it to a new computer, I suggest using a usb key to temporarily store it, but you'd have to ask the experts on how to do that.
OR, as an alternate hypothesis, they are abrogating those very skills which make them qualified to teach (critical thinking, scientific method) in order to appear more like the group on whose good will their success depends (eg, getting tenure) because they know that failure to do so will result in expulsion from the group.
Basic psychology research indicates that people will do rather extreme things to remain within the group. If you think, perhaps intuitively, that because someone is more intelligent that they will be immune to these problems, then you are mistaken. It hits everyone. Now, are there good sound reasons to be marxist, although there are also good reasons to be capitalist or whatever. These reasons [for whatever philosophy] are commonly bandied about, and just as commonly torn down by people, sometimes rightly so, other times not.
When you meet someone who claims to apply the 'scientific method' to every aspect (or even nearly every aspect), be warned--they are lying. Perhaps not intentionally, but still. People simply do not have the cognitive capacity to live that way. Instead we are run by a shortcut machine that we call a brain. It's purpose seems to be to discover relationships between items and provide shortcuts to those relationships. Thus humans are REALLY good at pattern recognition (think faces, reading, etc) even with significant degradation--especially in visual patterns. This is also what leads to group stereotypes (well, that and rumormongering).
The premise that professors are marxist hypocrits is another example of this--to a degree it is probably true that a higher portion of professors are communist or socialist than in the general population--except in certain departments. In the business department at most universities, for instance, there are plenty of capitalist pigs, while the concentration of communist bedwetters [see, I've insulted both sides now--happy?] in liberal arts departments is probably near 104% [adjunct professors and all that].
But to be on topic, the point that textbooks are overpriced is true. The cost of tuition is also quite high-although I would never argue that professors are overpaid in most instances. Quite the opposite. But since universities are now required to maintain expensive sporting facilities and subsidize the cost of producing the great American pacifier (professional sports), they can't afford to pay the professors more (but the $ddd,ddd+ they spend on the football coach is necessary).
Personally, I think education SHOULD be free, but since that is impractical it appears, I'm going to have to repay my student loans anyway.
Which is why I am not a computer scientist--or maybe I don't know these things because I'm not a computer scientist.
I still maintain that if we _could_ move away from binary, it would have some serious benefits.
What about optical processing/storage/transmission? Would that work?
By the way, though, note that I do not, and would not, suggest a move to base-10. base 4, 8, 16, or whatever worked within the system would be my preference. With that in mind, base 10 would make the whole argument about hdd space obsolete.
You don't happen to be darkonc's girlfriend do you?
:)
What, oh different 3 countries...unless one of you is lying.
So, are you, or are you not Darkonc's girlfriend?
Of course, this is Slashdot, so we have to guess that if you are not, then Darkonc is lying about having a girlfriend...unless there are pics, of course
Paying someone to argue with you will be cheaper in the long-run, and certainly by the time the children are old enough to actually argue, rather than simply contradict you (see Monty Python for the difference). Certainly by the time your children are old enough to actually argue, then you will have forgotten whatever it was you wanted to argue about.
Slight correction: cars/explosives/sugar etc do not work in base 10--humans do. This is likely (my own personal theory, nothing more) a reflection of the fact that we have 10 readily available digits that make counting quite simple if you use base 10. I rather strongly suspect that if humans had 12 digits, then we would use base 12 instead. The reason computers use base 2 is analogous: there are 2 states for the transistors. I rather suspect that at some point we will figure out a simple and reliable state system that lets computers use base 10, 12, or even 16, and they will process much more information in the same number of units (can't say digits or bits--maybe hits? hexadecimal digits?). That might make them more efficient if (and I stress the iffiness of this) the energy to switch states for a particular amount of information is less than the energy to convey that same information in the lesser base.
To illustrate, hexadecimal can store in two units 16^2 different states, or peices of information--never mind what they are. Binary requires 8 (16=2^4; 4*2=8) bits to convey the exact same amount of information. Thus if switchings states costs x in binary and anything less than 8x for hexadecimal (I think--someone else might want to run through this--I am not an engineer, mathemetician or anything like that, just a lowly psychologist with delusions of computer science), then the hexadecimal is more efficient,and would potentially result in vast energy savings. Now we just need to figure out how to make this happen. I leave that as an exercise for the reader.
I'm sorry, but while Led Zeppelin is good (I'm sure not going to argue), there are a certain percentage of their songs that I am convinced one must be stoned/high/drunk/etc in order to enjoy them properly. Since I am an abstainer, I don't really ever enjoy those songs. Not that they are bad songs, but they are not as good as the rest to those of us who don't use drugs of any type other than medicinal purposes.
The rest of your argument is unaffected by this, however, and I agree.
The RIAA is obselete on about 18 different levels, only 12 of which are potentially understandable.
I'm sorry, but I absolutely have to post this: Capsaicin is alcohol soluble, which is NOT the same as fat-soluble. It also happens to be fat-soluble, but I am reasonably certain that alcohol is more effective. So if you really need to stop the burn, have a drink of vodka or some such (or rinse & spit if you don't want it passing through the digestive tract). I don't know if something like listerine would work or not.
Milk or olive oil would help, but not as effectively as alcohol. Maybe try eating a bit of cheese (which doesn't help that much, since I've had habanero cheese that was plenty hot).
Enjoy.
(BTW, I am posting at the expense of mod points-sorry to those I modded up.)
I hate to do this, but I'm 99.999999% certain that 1 gigabit==1000 megabit==1000000 kilobit. And this is /. too!