Hey, I understand that... but ask yourself this... when you return to a job site (contracting) and find half your guys flicking bottle caps off of empty beers... and they are already starting to stagger (so the "didn't affect me" excuse doesn't work) then you wouldn't fire them???
Never paid my employees below standard. Always paid more. But I was also demanding. I pay well, and am just as willing to fire anyone that doesn't earn it.
Hell I used to buy lunch for my boys on construction sites (I was a teen at the time, working at my father's company), out of the petty cash box. I kept some good workers, but had plenty of scum too.
Those that worked, I was glad to pay well, and if they were willing we even used to discuss things that would help them further themselves financially, without gambling stocks or other paper crap shoots.
As for your 9/11 or enron request... I have to ask. Why would I "have" to hire people without business sense? People that didn't save up, don't deserve my help. If you're going to invest in stocks, instead of holding real assets, and then complain when someone else calls your bluff... (which is what the stockmarket is) why bitch at me for refusing to hire someone with bad financial sense. Once I started being very selective on whom it was I was employing, I had no more assholes working for me, only people whom I could rely on, and to whom I could give raises to without feeling that I was wasting cash and would have to mortgage my home in order to pay their salaries.
In fact, for my old employees, I used to save up as much hard cash as I needed to be able to pay their salaries for a year... I bet most of your big companies don't do that... and aren't willing to do that.
Besides I got my start by saving up... as did my old man. We had to deal with elitist scumbags too, and then we ended up signing their checks:)
Yeah... I had a secretary like that. I fired her about 5 seconds after walking in, and realizing she had done nothing but shop online and chatting on the phone while I was on site doing work. And people wonder why Americans can't keep jobs. Sure some are good workers and get shafted, but the majority just need a place to slack off and get paid. I know this first person from when I first worked for my father and saw other people wasting billable time (while they were on the clock) to sit around and do nothing. I have no respect for any scumbag that gets paid 16 to 30 bucks an hour, and slacks off. Especially in a place where a decent apartment rents for 600.00/month.
But see, I include a nice clause with my "employees". I don't hire ANYONE that has ever claimed unemployment, unless they have a REALLY good explanation and can deliver it with a straight face. I also reserve the right to fire ANY hired help I have if they so much as steal a screw or a lugnut from a job site. If they ask me for left overs that's fine, but if they steal it, gone they are.
Haha, whatever floats your boat. I've seen plenty of problems with "centrally planned systems". I prefer to avoid being a willing member of any such sheep herd. Why? Because I prefer to slaughter and eat sheep... not be one.
This law ONLY applies to "member nations" and those acknowledging the UN as a governing body. Those nations that still recognize their OWN sovereignty over themselves cannot possibly recognize the UN as doing so gives jurisdiction over to the UN, thus allowing the UN to become "owner" or "master" of said nations.
Currently the UN suckers free nations into doing its bidding through A... cash, B... food, C... Armed force.
Nuclear weapons, therefore are a MAJOR source of deterrence when negociating with "peacekeepers". If a nation plans to remain free, it must have a strong enough nuclear or better arsenal, in order to be able to guarantee "glass crater" deterrence to big nations and the UN.
Given the abuses the UN has undertaken in the name of "human rights", I would say they're something to be wary of, not proud of.
This is the end all, be all of centrally planned economies... its socialism at its best... those that blame either Adam Smith or "capitalism" or "free markets" don't realize that all this is the end result of the UNFREE markets. This has been the way socialism works... surprise, it ain't pretty.
They've already proven that their laws do not apply to themselves, so why should a sovereign individual consent (magic word) to their rulership? I didn't consent to the communists, or the socialists, and now not the fascists. Have I left any other members of the UN out? Then why would I consent to the UN's control?
This happened to an E-Gold broker recently, which the government robbed of several heavy 6-7 figure accounts. If memory serves me well, the account holders were not guilty of anything merely "suspected" and were not convicted of anything, but their "assets" were seized and liquidated.
The reason? The broker in question is one of the few who has not yet fled to the free market of international waters. They kept their servers in the US. Lesson 1. Globalism is not just for the big boys. In fact its friendlier for little players. You, me, mom and pop downtown, we're all the ones who should incorporate abroad if we do it at all.
Lesson 2. Torrentspy should work actively with friends from abroad, preferably from some nordic country or some place not friendly to the gestapo tactics of the EU, and US, China, etc. Right now, for the time being, South America seems allright, as would a drilling platform in the middle of the ocean (or close to shore, your preference). If you choose such a path and have money, hire good security, if you don't then you'd best be a good shot, and a great swimmer, you may need to defend such a place, especially if you declare it a separate independent nation or sovereign territory. After that, with a policy of neutrality and free trade with ALL who come to you, there is a fairly good chance you may even draw some of the Linux "community" to you, especially those who seek a place to host that is not "restricted" by either the East or the West.
Its just another scam. The reason they can't afford to actually do that "fiber to every home" bit, is because they spent too much implementing the government's concepts to help the intelligence agencies spy more easily without having to show up with a warrant or "gestapo letter" when they tap an ISP or Telco.
At how much money is being pumped into the market right now, one has to wonder why camera costs are upwards of 35k a camera for traffic lights. Usually in places that have about 2 accidents all year long, and most of them are grandma running into a deer.
Nah, its the same crap. Its just that when other "verboten" communities get hit (gun owners, free speech, etc) you get upset that they weren't hit harder.
I believe it was Thomas Paine circa AD 1776 or so, who wrote: "In order that liberty be preserved, we must not allow oppression even unto our enemies, for in doing so we set a precedent that reaches back into ourselves."
What goes around, comes around. Perhaps the more this crap hits the geek community, the more you realize that "free speech" refers to "all speech" not just yours. The same with "free" anything. And the same whether it starts in Europe or here. The Socialists left Germany and Russia and eventually conquered America without firing a single shot. Thank John Dewey and the Prussian Socialist School System he pioneered for us "'murkens".
PS - there is NO "well intentioned" law that ever restricts any freedom, except that to take action and to garner the natural consequences of one's action. State enforced "consequences" (aka punishments) and "criminal" status that occurs via the stroke of a pen is never well intentioned. Only seems so to those who still believe in "random coincidences in politics".
Amazing how the same can be said for the west. Echelon via the UN/US SigInt operations was merely one that became public, and recall that the Europeans actually bitched about Echelon being used to steal IP info more than spy on their buddies at the KGB.
Surprised that the same strategy would be turned against its maker? As I recall the Chinese also invented gunpowder, fireworks, a complex alphabet, kung fu, and they had this funny short ugly guy called Sun Tzu in our language, who just happened to pretty much invent the basis for modern tactics, on the battle field AND in the board room. They're just applying it to us now. Good for them. Bad for us though.
Now back to Linux. Agreed that the Windows world was suffering, but for awhile, when I got this laptop, the 2.6/2.4 kernels had some crap support for my wireless chip (as in none), and since Atheros are a***oles I refused to patronize their business and buy one of their chips. Since HP already threw windows on here (albeit charging me for the code but not allowing me the option for a barebones laptop), I decided to use it for awhile until I either had the time to learn enough about my wireless chipset, or I actually find a working driver.
Otherwise I've been mostly windows free (except at work) since about 1998. That's when my great "migration" began, and I only went back out of necessity for the job I took in IT. (I had done some pen testing beforehand and found that having a windows rig, legit or not, helped with testing of new code.) Nowadays that windows virtualization is so easy and reliable, and I can do my pen testing from within a sandbox, I don't much use it except on other people's machines and when it comes preinstalled as it did on this laptop.
As for "bad drivers", I still found more of those in the "line of duty" in Windows 2000 and XP, than I did in Linux. Only complaint I had was with ACPI support about 3 years ago. But that's been worked on, and as far as I'm concerned, the ACPI CPU states now work better in Linux than they do in Windows (still have issues with the HP not restoring network status in windows and requiring a reboot after standby. I am not alone either, it is a VERY widespread problem. The linux side has NO such issue however.)
If you get the chance, stay away from Solaris (Sun are not exactly very nice business people either) and try out BSD. When I had more time to watch it, I used to run a standard FreeBSD box on a DMZ on my LAN and let it get hacked ten ways to Sunday. It boggles the mind the kind of things people do to rigs on the open net. But for a machine that did little else, it was worth watching, quite entertaining actually.
In typical slashdotter fashion, you missed the more subtle point I was making.
And yet, the same way, China needs the USA's economy to stay stable to keep itself where it is (for now) the same thing is true for Linux, it needs users to keep the Linux servers running, and until enough converts simply wean OFF of Microsoft wares, Linux will depend on the Windows users to patronize websites and services running off Linux rigs. Even Linux desktop users are dependant on the massive numbers of easy to dupe Microsoft buyers to keep buying hardware and keep the costs down. (You don't think it was us geeks that drove the 3000.00 USD 386DX rigs down in price to 2000.00 USD for a top of the line dual CPU server with SLI videocards and 7 speaker surround? And all that in a period of massive currency inflation?)
Linux itself is neutral, it cannot force a migration through either quality or price (quality is good, price is zilch) because a large installed base is VERY close minded. I know this, and I will stay with this, they say, and they do as they say. So until a breakthrough occurs, Linux itself is dependent on some other OS option being out there to keep the lusers hooked on consuming the internet services available off Linux, in order for the market itself to survive long enough for a breakthrough of some kind to occur.
The same way, look for China to keep lending us money, which we'll use to keep buying things from them and waging pointless wars against helpless backwater countries, until eventually that breakthrough occurs. At that point, China will own us without collapsing itself. I suggest learning Mandarin or Cantonese long before that occurs.
Linux geeks should just treat Microsoft the way the Chinese government treats the US Government... a necessary enemy. Only there as a stepping stone to sovereignty or self sufficiency. Let them tout themselves, let them think they're winning, and then, when the chips are down, yank the last card from their house of cards... and watch them fall.
Sun Tzu was right though, you can either wean yourself off the enemy and create your own destiny, or you can destroy Darth Vader and take his place at the Emperor's side. Either you choose a side, or you don't play their game. Most Linux geeks have chosen a side, and will eventually find themselves in Darth Vader's shoes. It is inevitable when one takes the path of confrontation. One monster must be created to oppose the existing one, unless the wise man fends off the monster and lets it die of its own irrelevance.
It means that Microsoft software, plus the Windows operating system in general are a duopoly, their stuff, on their OS, or else. Period.
He's got a point, and soon after I will be removing my last "windows" install that matters. My research laptop will go from dual boot windows to single boot linux. Hell Linux has had less issues on it (HP Pav Dv5k).
It will be preference. Access and control over your own machine, or surrender it all to groupthink and continue to pay for microsoft's legal expenses. I say screw them and screw their shills and do whatever you want because you want to, not because some guy who owns stock in Microsoft says so.
The problem is when customers and citizens fail to realize that they are ALL consumers... citizens are consumers of government services, the same way customers are consumers of company services. Since both of those groups rarely insist on being informed consumers or better yet, SELF RELIANT, they end up at the mercy of their service providers.
DRM is merely the latest in a monopoly non free market that has been prevalent since government got created and got involved in regulating the market. Until the sheep stop being livestock and assert their own right to exist and make informed decisions, until the slogan singing stops, there will be little but more of the same. Tyranny never stopped, it merely dropped the eastern iron gauntlet and grabbed the velvet glove... and it hasn't lost a match yet, and once more, we're nearing the game point of the match called "Western Civilization".
Ditto, amusingly Postgre was SQL99 "compliant" long before MySQL started moving there. Not that standards are important but some of the features were there and worked:) (Never got to testing all of them because I rarely needed more than a couple of things.)
Then again there's also Firebird, forgot whose codebase they used.
Actually there are sites that will say you "live" in places where you may have purchased services or subscriptions for friends. Several of these have me living in towns where I've never actually set foot. I have setup services for friends of mine there... used my name as the subscriber... and WHAM... suddenly these sites list me as a resident. The abuse of data for advertising and tracking purposes is ridiculous, but until people start saying "NO", nothing will occur... for example feed the system bad info, do what you can to monkeywrench it, because the harder it is to track innocents, the sooner this nonsense will fall apart.
Networking sites are "free lobbying" for the "tracka'person" culture of "actionable intelligence gathering", which basically means that its crap, but it might serve some purpose later.
What did I ask? Did you read the entire post? I didn't ask that speculation be taken seriously, I simply asked that if you want to "find out the truth" about anything, you don't take the "current view" as the "only possible truth".
Otherwise you might find out that your "flat world" gets "round" sooner or later, and afterwards you'll find out that the universe doesn't spin around man's physical perception of it:) but quite possibly the other way around.
People were "absolutely certain" that maggots "spontaneously generated" on meat, yet later people had "absolute evidence" that flies landed and maggots came out of eggs they laid on the meat.
Until just a few years ago, the mainstream thought that a single radio frequency could not be used by several local stations to communicate simultaenously without all stations picking up the same transmission. Strangely, that "truth" is now no longer even "valid". Why?
I didn't ask you to "believe" me, but only that there is a difference from "believing" scientists, people, publications or any other second hand knowledge and "knowing" first hand. Neither you, nor I know anything we read in publications first hand... so how come you take their views so religiously?
Paracelcus, this is not aimed at you, I just needed a comment to attach this to that seemed relevant:)
Why do you presume that only "our way" of existence, energy consumption/production or even "consciousness" is the only way?
On our planet alone there are other species that we deal with very little. Instead of making use of some of them (plants, certain animals, etc) we destroy them to "alter our environment". Just because those who dictated the current paradigm say this is the only way, does not mean that all things are absolute.
We may well find that it is simply our means of observation that are too limited, as ambulatory bags of bones, meat and fat.
Maybe those "more advanced" races find other things a source of "energy" or "food". Why kill us when they can get us to do the dirty work, feeding on the well torched remains? As an example, there was an article about genetically engineered plants to consume excess Tritium leaked from nuclear power plants... must be the extra Tritium not used for glow in the dark gun sights.
How about the way they travel? Maybe they fold space, or time, maybe time doesn't mean anything to them. These types of "entities" have been described in various legends, from gods to vampires. Some are benevolent, others have a Smite-O-Matic plugged in and set to Auto-Smite, some, like the monotheistic psychotic gods can't make up their minds whom to love and whom to kill and make a crazy amazon goddess with cramps and PMS seem like a blessing.
What if like us, they were only going to pretend to be "friendly" but only really looking for targets, so the various military industrial complexes could justify their existences. Or maybe they're beyond the "killing" phase because we're insignificant. Or maybe, just maybe they're "us" the "us" that were smart and left during King Rama's war in the Mahabharata, and now that they've returned they found us just as barbaric, pestilent and worthless as when they left.
Or maybe the other consciousnesses out there consider nuclear energy to be dangerous... maybe they live, absorb or use the so called "dark matter". Maybe we're imperceptible to them? Impossible? To the majority of sheep obeying their priests, the world was flat, and the entire universe was anchored upon the earth less about 500 years ago. Have the rules of the universe changed? Maybe. But the methods of observation have certainly improved.
There are infinite possibilities, as we are currently only observing the universe through a set of means and vehemently opposed to any others. Modern science is no different than religion... a group of "experts" who only know their own fields... much like the modern plumbers installing PVC piping in a house, not realizing that the old houses had admirable grounding from their water pipes and were acting as interlinked systems. Nowadays a plumber only knows plumbing, an electrician only knows electricity, and nothing has changed, except how many people one has to pay if the same thing broke that 50 years ago would've required calling a "mere" handyman to fix. (Though 50 years ago, "average" homeowners could fix their homes on their own.)
I think it isn't that we haven't found them, it is that while our physical methods of observations have improved, we're still looking at the puzzle from a single direction, and as all who solve 3d puzzles know, it gets damn hard to put it together without turning it around and looking at it from another angle:)
Slashdot Mirror
Hey, I understand that... but ask yourself this... when you return to a job site (contracting) and find half your guys flicking bottle caps off of empty beers... and they are already starting to stagger (so the "didn't affect me" excuse doesn't work) then you wouldn't fire them???
Never paid my employees below standard. Always paid more. But I was also demanding. I pay well, and am just as willing to fire anyone that doesn't earn it.
:)
Hell I used to buy lunch for my boys on construction sites (I was a teen at the time, working at my father's company), out of the petty cash box. I kept some good workers, but had plenty of scum too.
Those that worked, I was glad to pay well, and if they were willing we even used to discuss things that would help them further themselves financially, without gambling stocks or other paper crap shoots.
As for your 9/11 or enron request... I have to ask. Why would I "have" to hire people without business sense? People that didn't save up, don't deserve my help. If you're going to invest in stocks, instead of holding real assets, and then complain when someone else calls your bluff... (which is what the stockmarket is) why bitch at me for refusing to hire someone with bad financial sense. Once I started being very selective on whom it was I was employing, I had no more assholes working for me, only people whom I could rely on, and to whom I could give raises to without feeling that I was wasting cash and would have to mortgage my home in order to pay their salaries.
In fact, for my old employees, I used to save up as much hard cash as I needed to be able to pay their salaries for a year... I bet most of your big companies don't do that... and aren't willing to do that.
Besides I got my start by saving up... as did my old man. We had to deal with elitist scumbags too, and then we ended up signing their checks
Yeah... I had a secretary like that. I fired her about 5 seconds after walking in, and realizing she had done nothing but shop online and chatting on the phone while I was on site doing work. And people wonder why Americans can't keep jobs. Sure some are good workers and get shafted, but the majority just need a place to slack off and get paid. I know this first person from when I first worked for my father and saw other people wasting billable time (while they were on the clock) to sit around and do nothing. I have no respect for any scumbag that gets paid 16 to 30 bucks an hour, and slacks off. Especially in a place where a decent apartment rents for 600.00/month.
But see, I include a nice clause with my "employees". I don't hire ANYONE that has ever claimed unemployment, unless they have a REALLY good explanation and can deliver it with a straight face. I also reserve the right to fire ANY hired help I have if they so much as steal a screw or a lugnut from a job site. If they ask me for left overs that's fine, but if they steal it, gone they are.
Haha, whatever floats your boat. I've seen plenty of problems with "centrally planned systems". I prefer to avoid being a willing member of any such sheep herd. Why? Because I prefer to slaughter and eat sheep... not be one.
This law ONLY applies to "member nations" and those acknowledging the UN as a governing body. Those nations that still recognize their OWN sovereignty over themselves cannot possibly recognize the UN as doing so gives jurisdiction over to the UN, thus allowing the UN to become "owner" or "master" of said nations.
Currently the UN suckers free nations into doing its bidding through A... cash, B... food, C... Armed force.
Nuclear weapons, therefore are a MAJOR source of deterrence when negociating with "peacekeepers". If a nation plans to remain free, it must have a strong enough nuclear or better arsenal, in order to be able to guarantee "glass crater" deterrence to big nations and the UN.
Given the abuses the UN has undertaken in the name of "human rights", I would say they're something to be wary of, not proud of.
This is the end all, be all of centrally planned economies... its socialism at its best... those that blame either Adam Smith or "capitalism" or "free markets" don't realize that all this is the end result of the UNFREE markets. This has been the way socialism works... surprise, it ain't pretty.
So has the USA. You forget the original "invasion" and "interventionist" policies, and the "oppression" wasn't just "about blacks".
You can add the Irish, the Chinese/Asian immigrants, the Blacks, and the original inhabitants.
Every country is evil. Only individual sovereign men and women can be good.
They've already proven that their laws do not apply to themselves, so why should a sovereign individual consent (magic word) to their rulership? I didn't consent to the communists, or the socialists, and now not the fascists. Have I left any other members of the UN out? Then why would I consent to the UN's control?
This happened to an E-Gold broker recently, which the government robbed of several heavy 6-7 figure accounts. If memory serves me well, the account holders were not guilty of anything merely "suspected" and were not convicted of anything, but their "assets" were seized and liquidated.
The reason? The broker in question is one of the few who has not yet fled to the free market of international waters. They kept their servers in the US. Lesson 1. Globalism is not just for the big boys. In fact its friendlier for little players. You, me, mom and pop downtown, we're all the ones who should incorporate abroad if we do it at all.
Lesson 2. Torrentspy should work actively with friends from abroad, preferably from some nordic country or some place not friendly to the gestapo tactics of the EU, and US, China, etc. Right now, for the time being, South America seems allright, as would a drilling platform in the middle of the ocean (or close to shore, your preference). If you choose such a path and have money, hire good security, if you don't then you'd best be a good shot, and a great swimmer, you may need to defend such a place, especially if you declare it a separate independent nation or sovereign territory. After that, with a policy of neutrality and free trade with ALL who come to you, there is a fairly good chance you may even draw some of the Linux "community" to you, especially those who seek a place to host that is not "restricted" by either the East or the West.
Ahhh, thank you. Good call. Around these parts we have the same motto ;D
Its just another scam. The reason they can't afford to actually do that "fiber to every home" bit, is because they spent too much implementing the government's concepts to help the intelligence agencies spy more easily without having to show up with a warrant or "gestapo letter" when they tap an ISP or Telco.
At how much money is being pumped into the market right now, one has to wonder why camera costs are upwards of 35k a camera for traffic lights. Usually in places that have about 2 accidents all year long, and most of them are grandma running into a deer.
Nah, its the same crap. Its just that when other "verboten" communities get hit (gun owners, free speech, etc) you get upset that they weren't hit harder.
I believe it was Thomas Paine circa AD 1776 or so, who wrote: "In order that liberty be preserved, we must not allow oppression even unto our enemies, for in doing so we set a precedent that reaches back into ourselves."
What goes around, comes around. Perhaps the more this crap hits the geek community, the more you realize that "free speech" refers to "all speech" not just yours. The same with "free" anything. And the same whether it starts in Europe or here. The Socialists left Germany and Russia and eventually conquered America without firing a single shot. Thank John Dewey and the Prussian Socialist School System he pioneered for us "'murkens".
PS - there is NO "well intentioned" law that ever restricts any freedom, except that to take action and to garner the natural consequences of one's action. State enforced "consequences" (aka punishments) and "criminal" status that occurs via the stroke of a pen is never well intentioned. Only seems so to those who still believe in "random coincidences in politics".
Amazing how the same can be said for the west. Echelon via the UN/US SigInt operations was merely one that became public, and recall that the Europeans actually bitched about Echelon being used to steal IP info more than spy on their buddies at the KGB.
Surprised that the same strategy would be turned against its maker? As I recall the Chinese also invented gunpowder, fireworks, a complex alphabet, kung fu, and they had this funny short ugly guy called Sun Tzu in our language, who just happened to pretty much invent the basis for modern tactics, on the battle field AND in the board room. They're just applying it to us now. Good for them. Bad for us though.
Have I missed anything?
LordToran... Lord Toranaga perhaps? Good book.
Now back to Linux. Agreed that the Windows world was suffering, but for awhile, when I got this laptop, the 2.6/2.4 kernels had some crap support for my wireless chip (as in none), and since Atheros are a***oles I refused to patronize their business and buy one of their chips. Since HP already threw windows on here (albeit charging me for the code but not allowing me the option for a barebones laptop), I decided to use it for awhile until I either had the time to learn enough about my wireless chipset, or I actually find a working driver.
Otherwise I've been mostly windows free (except at work) since about 1998. That's when my great "migration" began, and I only went back out of necessity for the job I took in IT. (I had done some pen testing beforehand and found that having a windows rig, legit or not, helped with testing of new code.) Nowadays that windows virtualization is so easy and reliable, and I can do my pen testing from within a sandbox, I don't much use it except on other people's machines and when it comes preinstalled as it did on this laptop.
As for "bad drivers", I still found more of those in the "line of duty" in Windows 2000 and XP, than I did in Linux. Only complaint I had was with ACPI support about 3 years ago. But that's been worked on, and as far as I'm concerned, the ACPI CPU states now work better in Linux than they do in Windows (still have issues with the HP not restoring network status in windows and requiring a reboot after standby. I am not alone either, it is a VERY widespread problem. The linux side has NO such issue however.)
If you get the chance, stay away from Solaris (Sun are not exactly very nice business people either) and try out BSD. When I had more time to watch it, I used to run a standard FreeBSD box on a DMZ on my LAN and let it get hacked ten ways to Sunday. It boggles the mind the kind of things people do to rigs on the open net. But for a machine that did little else, it was worth watching, quite entertaining actually.
In typical slashdotter fashion, you missed the more subtle point I was making.
And yet, the same way, China needs the USA's economy to stay stable to keep itself where it is (for now) the same thing is true for Linux, it needs users to keep the Linux servers running, and until enough converts simply wean OFF of Microsoft wares, Linux will depend on the Windows users to patronize websites and services running off Linux rigs. Even Linux desktop users are dependant on the massive numbers of easy to dupe Microsoft buyers to keep buying hardware and keep the costs down. (You don't think it was us geeks that drove the 3000.00 USD 386DX rigs down in price to 2000.00 USD for a top of the line dual CPU server with SLI videocards and 7 speaker surround? And all that in a period of massive currency inflation?)
Linux itself is neutral, it cannot force a migration through either quality or price (quality is good, price is zilch) because a large installed base is VERY close minded. I know this, and I will stay with this, they say, and they do as they say. So until a breakthrough occurs, Linux itself is dependent on some other OS option being out there to keep the lusers hooked on consuming the internet services available off Linux, in order for the market itself to survive long enough for a breakthrough of some kind to occur.
The same way, look for China to keep lending us money, which we'll use to keep buying things from them and waging pointless wars against helpless backwater countries, until eventually that breakthrough occurs. At that point, China will own us without collapsing itself. I suggest learning Mandarin or Cantonese long before that occurs.
Linux geeks should just treat Microsoft the way the Chinese government treats the US Government... a necessary enemy. Only there as a stepping stone to sovereignty or self sufficiency. Let them tout themselves, let them think they're winning, and then, when the chips are down, yank the last card from their house of cards... and watch them fall.
Sun Tzu was right though, you can either wean yourself off the enemy and create your own destiny, or you can destroy Darth Vader and take his place at the Emperor's side. Either you choose a side, or you don't play their game. Most Linux geeks have chosen a side, and will eventually find themselves in Darth Vader's shoes. It is inevitable when one takes the path of confrontation. One monster must be created to oppose the existing one, unless the wise man fends off the monster and lets it die of its own irrelevance.
It means that Microsoft software, plus the Windows operating system in general are a duopoly, their stuff, on their OS, or else. Period.
He's got a point, and soon after I will be removing my last "windows" install that matters. My research laptop will go from dual boot windows to single boot linux. Hell Linux has had less issues on it (HP Pav Dv5k).
It will be preference. Access and control over your own machine, or surrender it all to groupthink and continue to pay for microsoft's legal expenses. I say screw them and screw their shills and do whatever you want because you want to, not because some guy who owns stock in Microsoft says so.
The problem is when customers and citizens fail to realize that they are ALL consumers... citizens are consumers of government services, the same way customers are consumers of company services. Since both of those groups rarely insist on being informed consumers or better yet, SELF RELIANT, they end up at the mercy of their service providers.
DRM is merely the latest in a monopoly non free market that has been prevalent since government got created and got involved in regulating the market. Until the sheep stop being livestock and assert their own right to exist and make informed decisions, until the slogan singing stops, there will be little but more of the same. Tyranny never stopped, it merely dropped the eastern iron gauntlet and grabbed the velvet glove... and it hasn't lost a match yet, and once more, we're nearing the game point of the match called "Western Civilization".
For those of us born in Europe, our parents recall massive DROUGHTS during the 1930 to 1935 (especially in 1933) period. Interesting coincidence?
Ditto, amusingly Postgre was SQL99 "compliant" long before MySQL started moving there. Not that standards are important but some of the features were there and worked :) (Never got to testing all of them because I rarely needed more than a couple of things.)
Then again there's also Firebird, forgot whose codebase they used.
Foxit PDF, google it. Quite a nice little util... though to create pdf's you have to buy (or crack it). But that is entirely up to you :)
There are others out there.
Actually there are sites that will say you "live" in places where you may have purchased services or subscriptions for friends. Several of these have me living in towns where I've never actually set foot. I have setup services for friends of mine there... used my name as the subscriber... and WHAM... suddenly these sites list me as a resident. The abuse of data for advertising and tracking purposes is ridiculous, but until people start saying "NO", nothing will occur... for example feed the system bad info, do what you can to monkeywrench it, because the harder it is to track innocents, the sooner this nonsense will fall apart.
Networking sites are "free lobbying" for the "tracka'person" culture of "actionable intelligence gathering", which basically means that its crap, but it might serve some purpose later.
What did I ask? Did you read the entire post? I didn't ask that speculation be taken seriously, I simply asked that if you want to "find out the truth" about anything, you don't take the "current view" as the "only possible truth".
:) but quite possibly the other way around.
Otherwise you might find out that your "flat world" gets "round" sooner or later, and afterwards you'll find out that the universe doesn't spin around man's physical perception of it
People were "absolutely certain" that maggots "spontaneously generated" on meat, yet later people had "absolute evidence" that flies landed and maggots came out of eggs they laid on the meat.
Until just a few years ago, the mainstream thought that a single radio frequency could not be used by several local stations to communicate simultaenously without all stations picking up the same transmission. Strangely, that "truth" is now no longer even "valid". Why?
I didn't ask you to "believe" me, but only that there is a difference from "believing" scientists, people, publications or any other second hand knowledge and "knowing" first hand. Neither you, nor I know anything we read in publications first hand... so how come you take their views so religiously?
Me neither :) Had to pay others to fix anything of mine that is.
:P
Glad to meet you
Paracelcus, this is not aimed at you, I just needed a comment to attach this to that seemed relevant :)
:)
Why do you presume that only "our way" of existence, energy consumption/production or even "consciousness" is the only way?
On our planet alone there are other species that we deal with very little. Instead of making use of some of them (plants, certain animals, etc) we destroy them to "alter our environment". Just because those who dictated the current paradigm say this is the only way, does not mean that all things are absolute.
We may well find that it is simply our means of observation that are too limited, as ambulatory bags of bones, meat and fat.
Maybe those "more advanced" races find other things a source of "energy" or "food". Why kill us when they can get us to do the dirty work, feeding on the well torched remains? As an example, there was an article about genetically engineered plants to consume excess Tritium leaked from nuclear power plants... must be the extra Tritium not used for glow in the dark gun sights.
How about the way they travel? Maybe they fold space, or time, maybe time doesn't mean anything to them. These types of "entities" have been described in various legends, from gods to vampires. Some are benevolent, others have a Smite-O-Matic plugged in and set to Auto-Smite, some, like the monotheistic psychotic gods can't make up their minds whom to love and whom to kill and make a crazy amazon goddess with cramps and PMS seem like a blessing.
What if like us, they were only going to pretend to be "friendly" but only really looking for targets, so the various military industrial complexes could justify their existences. Or maybe they're beyond the "killing" phase because we're insignificant. Or maybe, just maybe they're "us" the "us" that were smart and left during King Rama's war in the Mahabharata, and now that they've returned they found us just as barbaric, pestilent and worthless as when they left.
Or maybe the other consciousnesses out there consider nuclear energy to be dangerous... maybe they live, absorb or use the so called "dark matter". Maybe we're imperceptible to them? Impossible? To the majority of sheep obeying their priests, the world was flat, and the entire universe was anchored upon the earth less about 500 years ago. Have the rules of the universe changed? Maybe. But the methods of observation have certainly improved.
There are infinite possibilities, as we are currently only observing the universe through a set of means and vehemently opposed to any others. Modern science is no different than religion... a group of "experts" who only know their own fields... much like the modern plumbers installing PVC piping in a house, not realizing that the old houses had admirable grounding from their water pipes and were acting as interlinked systems. Nowadays a plumber only knows plumbing, an electrician only knows electricity, and nothing has changed, except how many people one has to pay if the same thing broke that 50 years ago would've required calling a "mere" handyman to fix. (Though 50 years ago, "average" homeowners could fix their homes on their own.)
I think it isn't that we haven't found them, it is that while our physical methods of observations have improved, we're still looking at the puzzle from a single direction, and as all who solve 3d puzzles know, it gets damn hard to put it together without turning it around and looking at it from another angle