Easy.. GPL causes anyone who wants to use the "free" code to become part of the culture and keep the code "free". Those who do not want to be part of the culture do not get to sit back and receive the benefits of that culture.
If it were all public domain, it would require extra effort for the people using the code to contribute more code to the public domain. With the GPL, contributing back comes naturally because you can't legally do anything else (unless SCO somehow manages to invalidate the GPL's many years of de facto legitimacy..). Knowing that people in general are lazy, and taking into account the current trend of laws that allow people to prevent works from ever reaching the public domain, which "culture" has a better chance of being sustainable?
"The dispatchers want to clear calls with F1 so that they dont have to "reach off of the keyboard". They have no problem taking their hands off the keyboard to reach into a fucking bag of cheetos."
I've designed systems that have needed large amounts of data entered in a short time, and I've had to use those systems to enter large amounts of data. Reaching off the keybord can kill data entry speed. What the operators do with their hands when they have time to take a break has absolutely nothing to do with what they're doing when they have no time to do anything but type.
The rest of your complaints might have merit, but on this one it sounds like you're just blowing off the interface suggestions of the people who actually use the crap you make.
"People still use audiocassettes (OK, don't ask me why, but it's true!)"
One reason might be that it is still far easier to record, copy, and edit audiocassettes, and far easier to get the necessary equipment (though it is getting more difficult to find).
It's still far too difficult to convert a library of old tapes to CD format, and once you have it is even more difficult to do the same things that could be easily (though not as cleanly) done with tapes.
Fine. People who run Meth labs should have tougher sentences.
This isn't about sympathy. This is about someone who was shoehorned into the definition of "terrorist" and "weapons of mass destruction" because someone else decided that the laws that really fit his crime aren't tough enough.
People may feel that penalties on drunk drivers aren't harsh enough, but that doesn't mean we should charge them with attempted murder just for driving around. If there are laws in place to deal with something, push for those laws to be modified.. don't break the legal system further by misappropriating a law that is designed for something much different.
Heh.. I finally upgraded my Voodoo 3000 to a GeForce 4 when Neverwinter Nights came out. Just hadn't had a need to do it earlier, it ran everything I'd thrown at it just fine until then. Meanwhile, I think my roomate had gone through three or four video card upgrades...
``It's a nightmare,'' said one unidentified woman. ``The service is so bad; the management was so bad. The system is just a mess, just a mess. I had my luggage delivered to Toronto, I was told on Saturday, so I don't have anything.''
And they're blaming it on a virus? I can see it now....
BFAFH: "Your luggage hasn't arrived yet? Let me see..." *klickety-klickety* "It appears that it was accidently routed to the other side of the world!" (which makes sense, that's where it would go when the BFAFH put it on the "international flights" belt at the person's originating terminal.)
Traveller: "What?!? How could that happen?"
BFAFH: "Well, it's most likely due to.." *flips 'excuse of the day' calendar... hmm, this one's easy* "..a computer virus! Yes, you must have heard about it on the news, that one that is hitting all of the Windows systems? It's really quite horrible."
Traveller: "But what am I going to do for clothes? I have a business meeting tomorrow!"
BFAFH: "Well, the soonest we can get them here is next week. Sorry about that, have fun shopping for nice clothes in a hurry. And thank you for flying!"
Lessee.. "product mentality", check.. "dynamism", check... "shared platform", "infrastructure technology", "cookie-cutter software"... Yup, that fills in a full row on my Buzzword Bingo sheet.
Well, that's it, then.. MS Windows is too complex. About half of the adults in my immediate family who are over 40 can't get it to work right, and would be completely lost when it came to installing new software. Then again, half of that group thinks that an answering machine is a mysterious newfangled invention, and half of that group had to be taught that you don't need to pre-heat a microwave.
I know, computer interfaces should be no more complex than an etch-a-sketch, right? That way no one can possibly be left out...
The average round-trip commute in the U.S. is 20 miles according to the 2000 report from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
For that average commute of 20 miles and up to 24 miles per charge, the total cost per mile of the Tango is approximately 30% lower than that of a Honda Insight. This includes battery replacement, maintenance, and the cost of electricity at $.05 per kWh (as in the Northwest). The Honda Insight has an EPA rating of 56 mpg city and 57 highway. Please see the Cost-per-Mile Spreadsheet for details. This spreadsheet shows how the Tango compares with other vehicles, both Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) driven and hybrid. It includes gasoline and recommended dealer maintenance costs for the gasoline cars and electricity, maintenance, and battery replacement costs for the Tango.
In California where electricity rates are nearly $.15 per kWh, the total cost per mile for the Tango becomes roughly equal to that of the Insight. Electricity cost per mile runs from 0.9 cents to 2.6 cents as cost per kWh goes from 5 cents to 15 cents.
Don't know about numbers, but from an intuitive standpoint, what's more efficient..
-a lot of small powerplants burning their own fuel as they putter around town, rev up on the freeway, and sit stuck in traffic jams
or
-the one big powerplant that's pumping out energy shared by everyone?
Next question.. which has more room for smog-trapping filters, and lacks the requirement that any environmentally-friendly technology added to it must be lightweight and moveable?
Next, which one can be positioned so that the exhaust will not end up trapped in a valley or such?
And finally, which can be run by alternative sources.. wind/solar farms, water, etc?
Tell that to my Win2K computer that goes crazily unstable at least once a day, usually due to Media Player or Internet Explorer being run under normal circumstances.
It's great when just opening IE will make the Windows drawing operations go nuts (overlapping graphics, titlebars not drawn correctly, etc). And Media Player sure looks neat when it's displaying the placeholder "x" graphic in place of half of its interface and controls..
however I'm hung-up on, and sworn at, before my introduction is over, because people think I'm selling them something.
It couldn't possibly be because you're calling a complete stranger up and drilling them with questions, could it?
I don't yell or swear at telemarketers, but I don't enjoy them one bit. I do *not* pay phone bills so that *you* can make money calling me out of the blue and try to sell me something or drill me with questions. I do not know you, I did not ask you to call me, and chances are that you're calling me at a bad time anyways.
Even worse are the idiots who use predictive diallers.. During the day, I'm asleep (thanks to a night shift job). If I've been rudely awakened by the ringing phone, and pick it up only to find dead air, I'm going to be more than a little upset. Heck, even if an actual person is on the other end, it's possible that I'll yell at them... and you'd probably whine about how it's so unfair for you.
When you call me without being asked you are invading my life, wasting my time, and tying up a piece of equipment that I pay for. I'm not going to feel sorry for you.
And for the record, I didn't see telemarketters called pitiful. I made a comment about bad karma, but otherwise...
Have any studies been made on the number of people who must make a living as telemarketters? Or, for that matter, how many people absolutely must make a living as a spammer? The poor people! Won't anybody think of the children?
Seriously, you must have some really bad karma if the only way you can possibly make a living is to call up complete strangers and annoy the piss out of them all day.
That would be a hand scanner, not a card reader. You punch in a code, stick the hand in, and hope that it recognizes the palmprint of the guard you chopped the hand off of...
Slashdot Mirror
Isn't it great how it's always possible to build a replicating machine, but there is always just that one material that is impossible to replicate?
Easy.. GPL causes anyone who wants to use the "free" code to become part of the culture and keep the code "free". Those who do not want to be part of the culture do not get to sit back and receive the benefits of that culture.
If it were all public domain, it would require extra effort for the people using the code to contribute more code to the public domain. With the GPL, contributing back comes naturally because you can't legally do anything else (unless SCO somehow manages to invalidate the GPL's many years of de facto legitimacy..). Knowing that people in general are lazy, and taking into account the current trend of laws that allow people to prevent works from ever reaching the public domain, which "culture" has a better chance of being sustainable?
"The dispatchers want to clear calls with F1 so that they dont have to "reach off of the keyboard". They have no problem taking their hands off the keyboard to reach into a fucking bag of cheetos."
I've designed systems that have needed large amounts of data entered in a short time, and I've had to use those systems to enter large amounts of data. Reaching off the keybord can kill data entry speed. What the operators do with their hands when they have time to take a break has absolutely nothing to do with what they're doing when they have no time to do anything but type.
The rest of your complaints might have merit, but on this one it sounds like you're just blowing off the interface suggestions of the people who actually use the crap you make.
"People still use audiocassettes (OK, don't ask me why, but it's true!)"
One reason might be that it is still far easier to record, copy, and edit audiocassettes, and far easier to get the necessary equipment (though it is getting more difficult to find).
It's still far too difficult to convert a library of old tapes to CD format, and once you have it is even more difficult to do the same things that could be easily (though not as cleanly) done with tapes.
Fine. People who run Meth labs should have tougher sentences.
This isn't about sympathy. This is about someone who was shoehorned into the definition of "terrorist" and "weapons of mass destruction" because someone else decided that the laws that really fit his crime aren't tough enough.
People may feel that penalties on drunk drivers aren't harsh enough, but that doesn't mean we should charge them with attempted murder just for driving around. If there are laws in place to deal with something, push for those laws to be modified.. don't break the legal system further by misappropriating a law that is designed for something much different.
Too bad there have also been a whole bunch of posts on Slashdot explaining why you can't short SCO stock.
But, Darl is already in charge!
The very best kind of ally is one who comes to one's side for powerful reasons of his or her own.
Wrong... Alliances are formed because they serve a self interest.
Self interest doesn't equate to one having powerful reasons of their own?
Heh.. I finally upgraded my Voodoo 3000 to a GeForce 4 when Neverwinter Nights came out. Just hadn't had a need to do it earlier, it ran everything I'd thrown at it just fine until then. Meanwhile, I think my roomate had gone through three or four video card upgrades...
(Bastard Flight Attendant From Hell)
``It's a nightmare,'' said one unidentified woman. ``The service is so bad; the management was so bad. The system is just a mess, just a mess. I had my luggage delivered to Toronto, I was told on Saturday, so I don't have anything.''
And they're blaming it on a virus? I can see it now....
BFAFH: "Your luggage hasn't arrived yet? Let me see..."
*klickety-klickety*
"It appears that it was accidently routed to the other side of the world!"
(which makes sense, that's where it would go when the BFAFH put it on the "international flights" belt at the person's originating terminal.)
Traveller: "What?!? How could that happen?"
BFAFH: "Well, it's most likely due to.." *flips 'excuse of the day' calendar... hmm, this one's easy* "..a computer virus! Yes, you must have heard about it on the news, that one that is hitting all of the Windows systems? It's really quite horrible."
Traveller: "But what am I going to do for clothes? I have a business meeting tomorrow!"
BFAFH: "Well, the soonest we can get them here is next week. Sorry about that, have fun shopping for nice clothes in a hurry. And thank you for flying!"
distribution rights for the Linux Kernel outside was is avaliable
And make sure you proofread before sending.. there are enough typos coming out of the legal offices of the involved companies already.
Lessee.. "product mentality", check.. "dynamism", check... "shared platform", "infrastructure technology", "cookie-cutter software"... Yup, that fills in a full row on my Buzzword Bingo sheet.
Didn't say it was just Windows.
Just refuting the "Win2K is stable" comment, nothing more.
Rather than guessing, you could look down the page a little ways...
If you use mozilla mail, you will need to migrate your accounts over by hand.
Basically.. you copy the profile directory over. Not a big deal, though an actual import filter would be nice.
Well, that's it, then.. MS Windows is too complex. About half of the adults in my immediate family who are over 40 can't get it to work right, and would be completely lost when it came to installing new software. Then again, half of that group thinks that an answering machine is a mysterious newfangled invention, and half of that group had to be taught that you don't need to pre-heat a microwave.
I know, computer interfaces should be no more complex than an etch-a-sketch, right? That way no one can possibly be left out...
From the car's website:
The average round-trip commute in the U.S. is 20 miles according to the 2000 report from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
For that average commute of 20 miles and up to 24 miles per charge, the total cost per mile of the Tango is approximately 30% lower than that of a Honda Insight. This includes battery replacement, maintenance, and the cost of electricity at $.05 per kWh (as in the Northwest). The Honda Insight has an EPA rating of 56 mpg city and 57 highway. Please see the Cost-per-Mile Spreadsheet for details. This spreadsheet shows how the Tango compares with other vehicles, both Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) driven and hybrid. It includes gasoline and recommended dealer maintenance costs for the gasoline cars and electricity, maintenance, and battery replacement costs for the Tango.
In California where electricity rates are nearly $.15 per kWh, the total cost per mile for the Tango becomes roughly equal to that of the Insight. Electricity cost per mile runs from 0.9 cents to 2.6 cents as cost per kWh goes from 5 cents to 15 cents.
Don't know about numbers, but from an intuitive standpoint, what's more efficient..
-a lot of small powerplants burning their own fuel as they putter around town, rev up on the freeway, and sit stuck in traffic jams
or
-the one big powerplant that's pumping out energy shared by everyone?
Next question.. which has more room for smog-trapping filters, and lacks the requirement that any environmentally-friendly technology added to it must be lightweight and moveable?
Next, which one can be positioned so that the exhaust will not end up trapped in a valley or such?
And finally, which can be run by alternative sources.. wind/solar farms, water, etc?
Oh, c'mon.. someone with a few moderator points please *read* that post, and then pull it down a few notches!
"you jack up your karma whorin"
"total karma whorin'"
"(*cough* karma whore)"
"we continue to blatantly violate copyright laws while whorin' karam"
Informative, indeed.. Only information there was possibly the zip header structure, and even that is probably suspect...
Tell that to my Win2K computer that goes crazily unstable at least once a day, usually due to Media Player or Internet Explorer being run under normal circumstances.
It's great when just opening IE will make the Windows drawing operations go nuts (overlapping graphics, titlebars not drawn correctly, etc). And Media Player sure looks neat when it's displaying the placeholder "x" graphic in place of half of its interface and controls..
It's like saying Hastur three times, but with more danger of losing your mind afterwards.
That is the jest of Freudian psychology.
Yep, I've always pretty much considered Freudian psychology to be a joke.
The rumor I heard was that she was so heartbroken when Stephen King died that she locked herself into her room without any food, and just wasted away.
Horrible tragedy, really.
however I'm hung-up on, and sworn at, before my introduction is over, because people think I'm selling them something.
It couldn't possibly be because you're calling a complete stranger up and drilling them with questions, could it?
I don't yell or swear at telemarketers, but I don't enjoy them one bit. I do *not* pay phone bills so that *you* can make money calling me out of the blue and try to sell me something or drill me with questions. I do not know you, I did not ask you to call me, and chances are that you're calling me at a bad time anyways.
Even worse are the idiots who use predictive diallers.. During the day, I'm asleep (thanks to a night shift job). If I've been rudely awakened by the ringing phone, and pick it up only to find dead air, I'm going to be more than a little upset. Heck, even if an actual person is on the other end, it's possible that I'll yell at them... and you'd probably whine about how it's so unfair for you.
When you call me without being asked you are invading my life, wasting my time, and tying up a piece of equipment that I pay for. I'm not going to feel sorry for you.
And for the record, I didn't see telemarketters called pitiful. I made a comment about bad karma, but otherwise...
Have any studies been made on the number of people who must make a living as telemarketters? Or, for that matter, how many people absolutely must make a living as a spammer? The poor people! Won't anybody think of the children?
Seriously, you must have some really bad karma if the only way you can possibly make a living is to call up complete strangers and annoy the piss out of them all day.
That would be a hand scanner, not a card reader. You punch in a code, stick the hand in, and hope that it recognizes the palmprint of the guard you chopped the hand off of...
err, I mean.. uh...
my, look at the time, must be going...