So if somebody commits copyright infringement they deserve a completely arbitrary "sentence" in the form of the possible destruction or copying of the possibly valuable and/or private information on their computers?
And the completely innocent people who are actually affected by the trojan's payload in the form of DDOS attacks and the like, do they also "deserve it"?
A lax "cosmic justice" attitude like this as regards malware is very dangerous.
The problems many people, me included, have with modified vegetables is that their genes have been altered which could entail them being harmful to either the digestor, the environment, or both. Add to this that Monsanto seem to be about the same as Hitler on the niceness scale (hi Godwin!) and these crops are not that attractive unless we see some tangible benefits.
In the case of meat, the challenge is quite different. We do not want it to behave different, we want it to be just the same as if we ripped it fresh from the bovine. If this can be done without genetical modification (which I do doubt, though), then the above concerns regarding vegetables do not apply, at least not for me.
We have hunger, diseases and war, yes. However, firstly it is not entirely simple to do away with those problems just like that, and secondly, the production of meat as it is done today is far more resource-consuming than the production of vegetarian alternatives, sometimes by an order of magnitude or more. Since many wars are fought over scarce resources, it is not exactly far-fetched to say that people not eating meat (as in the resource-inefficient raising of animals) could help against wars. And hunger, obviously.
Either way, your point that "do not care about A because B is even more important" is not really very good. People will always have different preferences, and being opposed to eating meat does not mean you are for wars, hunger and diseases or even that you are not doing anything against those problems. I will grant you, however, that PETA are sensationalist pricks whose campaigns, image and general smugness I despise.
It might be prudent to ask how many different players the "30 GB cathegory" consists of. This sounds like the Zune's total market share is very, very small.
IBM's X31 laptops, and probably most others in the same series, come with a little light installed at the top of the screen, which can be switched on to illuminate the keyboard if in darkness. It is not nearly as pretty as Apple's Powerbook solution, but it works well enough.
It is really a pity that they did not listen more to the companies against software patents, user groups, petitions, and people like Smets-Solanes (who wrote a very interesting paper on the subject). The end result will likely be a smaller number of actors on the market, due to higher information costs, the need of negotiating cross-licensing with other actors and other stupid, unproductive patent related invention-stifling activities.
There is no such thing as a law that can not be revoked, though, so keep on fighting.
Well, as most other people here, I support Linux. However, that does not mean that I think Slashdot should be just a propaganda machine, pumping out all positive material regarding Linux that the editors can find, no matter how newsworthy it is. I come here to read news for nerds, stuff that matters, not just to be subjected to "Microsoft sucks and Linux is the best".
I cannot really find this relevant. I mean, we have all heard the Linux is better than Windows, blah blah blah.
I mean, if someone (a real person, that is) posted a testimony that Windows is better than Linux, then it could be news, but this feels just like regurgitation.
I do not fully understand how the writer could claim that Apple have done something wrong when benchmarking in the "there is a faster Pentium"-aspect. The 3.2GHz was just released when the new G5s were presented, and even if Apple have had access to a preview sample, I do not believe that they would ever use such things in benchmarks. I mean, what if Intel suddenly decided not to release the 3.2GHz at that time, then Jobs would have stood at the keynote saying "well, we have benchmarked against a processor that is not available yet". It would not seem credible.
Really, is there nothing more worthy of mention than (gasp!) anti-aliased fonts. I mean, this is supposed to be a productivity suite, not just a Microsoft document reader, right?
Apart from that, I would love to hear from people having used recent versions. Is it actually good enough to fully replace Office v.X?
By pricing their computers as they do, the low end box costing roughly two thousand dollars, Apple are most definitely nicheing themselves.
Apple computers may appeal to many people, but so do expensive (and niched) cars. That does not mean that people will necessarily buy them, only those who believe that the price/performance+style+usability ratio is high enough.
Which part of the wording commercial productivity software did you not understand?
The majority of computer users want brand name software. People want interfaces and commands they recognize, they want tech support and they want to buy everything in a colourful box. You may call that stupid if you want to, citing all the marvellous Linux software (largely consisting of clones of commercial software) out there, but that will not change their behaviour.
Not to whine or anything, but presently Linux has a niche and Mac OS also has a niche. Some parts of these may touch each other, but there are Mac users who wouldn't touch Linux with a ten foot pole, and vice versa.
Right now, Mac OS supports far more commercial productivity software in many areas than Linux, something which many other of the "outmaneuvered" systems have not done.
Considering Apples release of the G5 and the continuing improvement of both Linux and OS X, I wouldn't be surprised if Linux and Apple primarily eat Microsoft's market shares, not each others'.
Much as I love the PowerBooks (hopefully G5s later today), we're talking about desktop processors here. When you buy a $700 processor, you're buying it because of the raw speed, and you're going to be caring about how fast it does things rather than how much power it consumes...
So what's the real news?
on
P4 3.2GHz Reviews
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I find it irrelevant whether the speed of an existing type of processor has increased by less than ten percent, although looking at the price compared to the 200MHz lower clocked variant, maybe this would fit under "It's funny, laugh".
However, this processor does seems very suitable for overclocking (4GHz, yikes!). Did anyone manage to come close to that with the 3GHz model, or has Intel increased the therapeutical window of their processors slightly?;)
From the LWN page:
This is sad...
(Posted Jun 22, 2003 20:47 UTC (Sun) by erat) (Post reply)
No, not the SCO folks who made the signs... It's the people who don't have a shred of humor left and, more importantly, weren't even there who seem to be take everything SCO employees touch as being an insult.
I work across the street from SCO. I was at the protest. At one point, I was one of the people carrying a SCO-produced sign (as a JOKE. At one point I even saw picketters holding SCO signs). If you were there you'd know that the entire event -- albeit serious in its message -- was taken in good spirits by pretty much everyone. I'd be surprised if anyone seriously though the SCO signs were meant to be anything but fun.
You remember FUN, don't you?? It's like when you're in a bar watching a football game and there are folks rooting for the other team in the bar with you; friendly "traitor" jabs are tossed back and forth, joking insinuations are made, and in the end you all laugh together and say "bye" when you leave.
Here are some facts that some (all?) of you didn't get from the pictures:
1) It was very hot that day so Canopy provided drinks for everyone, including the protesters. And yes, protesters took them up on the drinks, and they even said "thanks".
2) SCO and Canopy employees (including Ralph Yarro and Darl McBride, among others) shared laughs with the picketters. No, I didn't see Chris Sontag or Blake Stowell out there, but I don't know them so I could have just missed them.
3) Darl, on his way home, stopped by the picketting near 1600 N. (he didn't have to; he could have driven by and nobody would have noticed) and chatted with the protesters. There are at least two pictures of him with his arms around a few of the protesters, and all of them are happy.
Sorry folks, but other than a reporter who got heat stroke, the people who showed up had a good time. The folks there mixed with SCO, Canopy, etc. employees from around the office complex, had some fun with the "rivalry", and went on their merry way happy. At least that was my observation.
The intent of the protest was to bring attention to the opinions of those who oppose SCO's actions, not to threaten, throw things, fight, or yell. In that regard, the protest was more successful than I would have hoped. Nobody walked away with a different opinion of SCO's actions, but people can disagree without hating each other.
At least here in Utah they can.
The problem as I see it is not primarily that you or someone else might get caught for downloading the latest Matrix movie. That's most likely not going to happen. Rather, that the police can now search your house with the excuse that you might have shared copyrighted material, and that they can shut you up in the blink of an eye should you happen to create a nifty piece of software. A proposal that allows Swedish police officers to search anyone "preventively" (the excuse is that this will make it easier to get grafitti painters) is also becoming law soon. Hello, police state...
A very light laptop, maybe 1.4 kilograms/3 pounds is very, very nice to have when studying. Since you'll be carrying books, booze, fellow students and whatnot around most of the time, you'll be very happy to have a lightweight laptop. Back it up in your room with a good 19" CRT monitor - those are cheap these days - and external keyboard and mouse. Unless you're a die-hard gamer, I believe this to be the best solution. Oh, and mind battery life, too.
Because whichever way you put it, it's still important news that might affect the whole community.
Not publishing newsworthy items just because it is related to someone which one for one reason or another does not like, is a form of active censorship (as opposed to the passive censorship that all selection of news is, naturally) which - IMHO - does not belong on Slashdot.
There is a difference between pointing out a security problem, either publicly or directly to the owner of the compromised product, and hacking a server.
If I saw that the door to your apartment was ajar, I might ring the bell or call in and point it out. That would be one thing. If I went in for no reason wrecked everything in sight, that would be something completely different. And that's what been done here.
Property is property (we're talking about infringement here, not copying, which is not relevant to this discussion), virtual or not.
Ah, but they're using the Seagates for a reason. They run quiet enough that you'll hardly hear them. The slight noise tends to fade into the background.
Ah, but Microsoft need not win the lawsuit. They might just need to stay in court for a really long time (which they are very good at) with lawsuits this way and that, to make Lycoris suffer financially and possibly going under.
Honestly, I haven't been looking at Lycoris earlier, but judging from the screenshots, I'd not say that they are making a migration easier. They're just cloning Microsoft Windows XP, right down to the default (I suppose) desktop picture. Luna is really one of the ugliest interface designs ever, but I guess that if this helps spread an IMHO superior desktop operating system to the unwashed masses who are still caught in Microsoft's web of darkness, the cloning is somewhat excusable.
They could have made it a _little_ bit different, though. I wonder if a lawsuit's coming up...
Slashdot Mirror
So if somebody commits copyright infringement they deserve a completely arbitrary "sentence" in the form of the possible destruction or copying of the possibly valuable and/or private information on their computers? And the completely innocent people who are actually affected by the trojan's payload in the form of DDOS attacks and the like, do they also "deserve it"? A lax "cosmic justice" attitude like this as regards malware is very dangerous.
The problems many people, me included, have with modified vegetables is that their genes have been altered which could entail them being harmful to either the digestor, the environment, or both. Add to this that Monsanto seem to be about the same as Hitler on the niceness scale (hi Godwin!) and these crops are not that attractive unless we see some tangible benefits. In the case of meat, the challenge is quite different. We do not want it to behave different, we want it to be just the same as if we ripped it fresh from the bovine. If this can be done without genetical modification (which I do doubt, though), then the above concerns regarding vegetables do not apply, at least not for me.
We have hunger, diseases and war, yes. However, firstly it is not entirely simple to do away with those problems just like that, and secondly, the production of meat as it is done today is far more resource-consuming than the production of vegetarian alternatives, sometimes by an order of magnitude or more. Since many wars are fought over scarce resources, it is not exactly far-fetched to say that people not eating meat (as in the resource-inefficient raising of animals) could help against wars. And hunger, obviously.
Either way, your point that "do not care about A because B is even more important" is not really very good. People will always have different preferences, and being opposed to eating meat does not mean you are for wars, hunger and diseases or even that you are not doing anything against those problems. I will grant you, however, that PETA are sensationalist pricks whose campaigns, image and general smugness I despise.
It might be prudent to ask how many different players the "30 GB cathegory" consists of. This sounds like the Zune's total market share is very, very small.
IBM's X31 laptops, and probably most others in the same series, come with a little light installed at the top of the screen, which can be switched on to illuminate the keyboard if in darkness. It is not nearly as pretty as Apple's Powerbook solution, but it works well enough.
Here in Sweden, you can get 26 megabits/second, for $45/month. ^_^
It is really a pity that they did not listen more to the companies against software patents, user groups, petitions, and people like Smets-Solanes (who wrote a very interesting paper on the subject). The end result will likely be a smaller number of actors on the market, due to higher information costs, the need of negotiating cross-licensing with other actors and other stupid, unproductive patent related invention-stifling activities. There is no such thing as a law that can not be revoked, though, so keep on fighting.
Well, as most other people here, I support Linux. However, that does not mean that I think Slashdot should be just a propaganda machine, pumping out all positive material regarding Linux that the editors can find, no matter how newsworthy it is. I come here to read news for nerds, stuff that matters, not just to be subjected to "Microsoft sucks and Linux is the best".
I cannot really find this relevant. I mean, we have all heard the Linux is better than Windows, blah blah blah. I mean, if someone (a real person, that is) posted a testimony that Windows is better than Linux, then it could be news, but this feels just like regurgitation.
A somewhat relevant essay comes to mind. Read Julio H. Cole.
I do not fully understand how the writer could claim that Apple have done something wrong when benchmarking in the "there is a faster Pentium"-aspect. The 3.2GHz was just released when the new G5s were presented, and even if Apple have had access to a preview sample, I do not believe that they would ever use such things in benchmarks. I mean, what if Intel suddenly decided not to release the 3.2GHz at that time, then Jobs would have stood at the keynote saying "well, we have benchmarked against a processor that is not available yet". It would not seem credible.
Really, is there nothing more worthy of mention than (gasp!) anti-aliased fonts. I mean, this is supposed to be a productivity suite, not just a Microsoft document reader, right? Apart from that, I would love to hear from people having used recent versions. Is it actually good enough to fully replace Office v.X?
Apple computers may appeal to many people, but so do expensive (and niched) cars. That does not mean that people will necessarily buy them, only those who believe that the price/performance+style+usability ratio is high enough.
The majority of computer users want brand name software. People want interfaces and commands they recognize, they want tech support and they want to buy everything in a colourful box. You may call that stupid if you want to, citing all the marvellous Linux software (largely consisting of clones of commercial software) out there, but that will not change their behaviour.
Ah well, I believe I am feeding the trolls here.
Not to whine or anything, but presently Linux has a niche and Mac OS also has a niche. Some parts of these may touch each other, but there are Mac users who wouldn't touch Linux with a ten foot pole, and vice versa. Right now, Mac OS supports far more commercial productivity software in many areas than Linux, something which many other of the "outmaneuvered" systems have not done. Considering Apples release of the G5 and the continuing improvement of both Linux and OS X, I wouldn't be surprised if Linux and Apple primarily eat Microsoft's market shares, not each others'.
Much as I love the PowerBooks (hopefully G5s later today), we're talking about desktop processors here. When you buy a $700 processor, you're buying it because of the raw speed, and you're going to be caring about how fast it does things rather than how much power it consumes...
I find it irrelevant whether the speed of an existing type of processor has increased by less than ten percent, although looking at the price compared to the 200MHz lower clocked variant, maybe this would fit under "It's funny, laugh".
;)
However, this processor does seems very suitable for overclocking (4GHz, yikes!). Did anyone manage to come close to that with the 3GHz model, or has Intel increased the therapeutical window of their processors slightly?
From the LWN page: This is sad... (Posted Jun 22, 2003 20:47 UTC (Sun) by erat) (Post reply) No, not the SCO folks who made the signs... It's the people who don't have a shred of humor left and, more importantly, weren't even there who seem to be take everything SCO employees touch as being an insult. I work across the street from SCO. I was at the protest. At one point, I was one of the people carrying a SCO-produced sign (as a JOKE. At one point I even saw picketters holding SCO signs). If you were there you'd know that the entire event -- albeit serious in its message -- was taken in good spirits by pretty much everyone. I'd be surprised if anyone seriously though the SCO signs were meant to be anything but fun. You remember FUN, don't you?? It's like when you're in a bar watching a football game and there are folks rooting for the other team in the bar with you; friendly "traitor" jabs are tossed back and forth, joking insinuations are made, and in the end you all laugh together and say "bye" when you leave. Here are some facts that some (all?) of you didn't get from the pictures: 1) It was very hot that day so Canopy provided drinks for everyone, including the protesters. And yes, protesters took them up on the drinks, and they even said "thanks". 2) SCO and Canopy employees (including Ralph Yarro and Darl McBride, among others) shared laughs with the picketters. No, I didn't see Chris Sontag or Blake Stowell out there, but I don't know them so I could have just missed them. 3) Darl, on his way home, stopped by the picketting near 1600 N. (he didn't have to; he could have driven by and nobody would have noticed) and chatted with the protesters. There are at least two pictures of him with his arms around a few of the protesters, and all of them are happy. Sorry folks, but other than a reporter who got heat stroke, the people who showed up had a good time. The folks there mixed with SCO, Canopy, etc. employees from around the office complex, had some fun with the "rivalry", and went on their merry way happy. At least that was my observation. The intent of the protest was to bring attention to the opinions of those who oppose SCO's actions, not to threaten, throw things, fight, or yell. In that regard, the protest was more successful than I would have hoped. Nobody walked away with a different opinion of SCO's actions, but people can disagree without hating each other. At least here in Utah they can.
The problem as I see it is not primarily that you or someone else might get caught for downloading the latest Matrix movie. That's most likely not going to happen. Rather, that the police can now search your house with the excuse that you might have shared copyrighted material, and that they can shut you up in the blink of an eye should you happen to create a nifty piece of software. A proposal that allows Swedish police officers to search anyone "preventively" (the excuse is that this will make it easier to get grafitti painters) is also becoming law soon. Hello, police state...
A very light laptop, maybe 1.4 kilograms/3 pounds is very, very nice to have when studying. Since you'll be carrying books, booze, fellow students and whatnot around most of the time, you'll be very happy to have a lightweight laptop. Back it up in your room with a good 19" CRT monitor - those are cheap these days - and external keyboard and mouse. Unless you're a die-hard gamer, I believe this to be the best solution. Oh, and mind battery life, too.
Not publishing newsworthy items just because it is related to someone which one for one reason or another does not like, is a form of active censorship (as opposed to the passive censorship that all selection of news is, naturally) which - IMHO - does not belong on Slashdot.
There is a difference between pointing out a security problem, either publicly or directly to the owner of the compromised product, and hacking a server. If I saw that the door to your apartment was ajar, I might ring the bell or call in and point it out. That would be one thing. If I went in for no reason wrecked everything in sight, that would be something completely different. And that's what been done here. Property is property (we're talking about infringement here, not copying, which is not relevant to this discussion), virtual or not.
Ah, but they're using the Seagates for a reason. They run quiet enough that you'll hardly hear them. The slight noise tends to fade into the background.
Ah, but Microsoft need not win the lawsuit. They might just need to stay in court for a really long time (which they are very good at) with lawsuits this way and that, to make Lycoris suffer financially and possibly going under.
Honestly, I haven't been looking at Lycoris earlier, but judging from the screenshots, I'd not say that they are making a migration easier. They're just cloning Microsoft Windows XP, right down to the default (I suppose) desktop picture. Luna is really one of the ugliest interface designs ever, but I guess that if this helps spread an IMHO superior desktop operating system to the unwashed masses who are still caught in Microsoft's web of darkness, the cloning is somewhat excusable. They could have made it a _little_ bit different, though. I wonder if a lawsuit's coming up...