"This is about.... China building an economy off of illegally reproduced and distributed material."
Even the US economy doesn't hinge on the entertainment industry, by what obscene myopism could we possibly arrive at the conclusion that a country with three times the population is 'building an economy' from market vendors selling copies of movies, and that those movies come primarily from the US?
"...where gentoo and LFS are for linux users with balls of steel."
I was with Gentoo from the first release and found the old Debian install a 'balls of titanium' task. It wasn't worth the bother with so many worthy and more comprehensible competitors. The new installer, along with Debian's robustness and apparent equivalent speed, convinced me Gentoo wasn't worth the etc-update pain for every minor update. It's one downside is the rigorous adherence to packaging only open software complicates things like Nvidia drivers and some multimedia codecs relative to Gentoo.
"A very, very simple fix for this exists - Force users to register (they don't need to provide any IRL info, as I'll explain in a moment), and implement a Slashdot-like karma and moderation (and metamoderation, if necessary) system."
Slashdot is not the best model to emulate. Whenever the topic discussed is one in which I'm well versed I always cringe at the high moderation given, for lack of a better term, 'feel good' posts full of factual errors. Moderators have a strong prediliction to assign points based on social criteria - is the post from an everyman perspective? does it ridicule elitism? - rather than factual content, ironically the exact problem facing Wikipedia.
"The notion that an encyclopedia can be unbiased is ridiculous when if you sat twenty scientists in a room and gave them one article an academic fight would break out with many subjects."
That's a misleading statement. Certainly the potential for disagreement exisits at the periphery of the field, but on the core tenents relevant to their expertise - the part relevant to an encyclopedia - there's far more likely to be complete agreement. It's hard to see how any science could proceed without.
Oh please don't. I have yet to play a game that, when the option's available, performed better in Direct than OpenGL. HL2 is the latest buggy, stuttering disappoinment to be released Direct-only. On the other hand, more Direct-only games means fewer playable titles and more time spent away from the keyboard, so on second thought..
Complete agreement. HL2 was a massive disappointment, ironically for the same reason I found Doom 3 to be less than the sum of its parts. Both games adhered to the 'one path to next objective' game structure that locks a player's options and defines boredom. There was more open game structure in a single level of FarCry, particularly that big island level, than all of HL2.
" The problem is that the only people with standing to make a legal complaint about this practice (i.e., sue them) are people who have downloaded the files..."
The files in question are not music and presumably not illegal to download as the publisher made them available on P2P networks without disclaimer. Did the user also download other music files? Perhaps, but it's questionable whether that's relevant or acceptable to bring forward in a court case related to these specific files.
"I think it's ironic that MS originally put these capabilities in so the media companies...
Bing! You nailed it right there. Microsoft made an obvious policy decision long ago to shift developnment focus from end users to corporations, hence the ease with which 'bad' corporate users abuse the OS at the end user's expense.
My position holds faith that people can easily differentiate between the terms, a difference of critical importance. It's those who maintain the general population are irremediably confused when faced with "free" and "open source" who are the true elitists.
" Let me know when you convert the world back to accepting that a megabyte is 1024 * 1024 bytes.
As you demonstrated there. Are you saying the general population is too stupid to understand? It's certainly not my stance.
"The Open Source movement is more pragmatic, even at the cost of some Freedom: "Use whatever is better technically for your purpose, even if its not free"."
How did you arrive at that conclusion? Is it possible to have 'free software' in the manner you describe which isn't 'open source'?
Only medical professionals really need to know the difference between the terms 'liver' and 'spleen', that doesn't make those who's knowledge ends at 'guts' any more intelligent. Leaving the dumbing down for Survivor and advertising agencies and maintain distinctions important to the field. Not everything must be reduced to pablum.
You're preference is an interface that looks like Windows 3.1 or Word 2? I don't understand this permanent woody for boxes in boxes, the non-Photoshop world abandonded that GUI a decade ago.
"From what I've seen, VERY few people actually use the GIMP for anything other than the occasional experiment to see if it has stopped sucking yet."
Breathless awaiting how you were able to see the way the world uses the Gimp. The road to easy mod points here appears to be say anything negative, no matter how ridiculous, about the Gimp.
"His main point is that the distribution process for FireFox is very insecure."
Comparing his assertion to reality reveals it as the self-serving BS it is. Firefox's process differs from every other OSS project, including distro mirrors, exactly how? Where's the plague of compromised binaries? Donated mirrors have been in place for decade(s) now, if his claim had any basis in fact the method would have proved untenable years ago. It didn't, instead his employer's products continue to be the most exploitable in mass distribution. Reference reality, guys.
Murder, contract killers, I'm surprised terrorists and children in peril didn't make the analogy. How about something a bit more realistic? The bartender tells a patron who wants to go fishing the location of the nearest sporting goods store. The patron uses the fishing gear purchased out of season. The bartender knew it wasn't fishing season when providing the directions. No murders, no money changing hand with the bartender, no quantifiable loss, just breaking a law intended to preserve a resource. Is the bartender guilty of conspiracy? Only in a sense worthy of a Victor Hugo novel, a reasonable person would not connect the dots. In a civilized, humane society the patron bears full responsibility for the act, which is at best a misdemeanour and a small fine.
I also prefer Mozilla's use of the 'Tool' menu for pop-up blockers, forms, cookie management, etc. Much easier than burrowing down multiple levels into Firefox's Pref dialogue.
You skimmed too fast, this booklet is obviously aimed at the Enterprise support. Unless of course you meant that to say typical MSCEs will find it too complex.;)
Slashdot Mirror
View > Apply Theme > Get New Themes? There must be a couple dozen alternatives available, easier to install than Firefox.
Even the US economy doesn't hinge on the entertainment industry, by what obscene myopism could we possibly arrive at the conclusion that a country with three times the population is 'building an economy' from market vendors selling copies of movies, and that those movies come primarily from the US?
Only if it's Monsanto.
I work in radio, allow me to translate. Bram's reply, properly spoken in a congenial tone, essential translates as:
"What are you, a fucking idiot?"
I thought it was perfect.
I was with Gentoo from the first release and found the old Debian install a 'balls of titanium' task. It wasn't worth the bother with so many worthy and more comprehensible competitors. The new installer, along with Debian's robustness and apparent equivalent speed, convinced me Gentoo wasn't worth the etc-update pain for every minor update. It's one downside is the rigorous adherence to packaging only open software complicates things like Nvidia drivers and some multimedia codecs relative to Gentoo.
Slashdot is not the best model to emulate. Whenever the topic discussed is one in which I'm well versed I always cringe at the high moderation given, for lack of a better term, 'feel good' posts full of factual errors. Moderators have a strong prediliction to assign points based on social criteria - is the post from an everyman perspective? does it ridicule elitism? - rather than factual content, ironically the exact problem facing Wikipedia.
That's a misleading statement. Certainly the potential for disagreement exisits at the periphery of the field, but on the core tenents relevant to their expertise - the part relevant to an encyclopedia - there's far more likely to be complete agreement. It's hard to see how any science could proceed without.
Oh please don't. I have yet to play a game that, when the option's available, performed better in Direct than OpenGL. HL2 is the latest buggy, stuttering disappoinment to be released Direct-only. On the other hand, more Direct-only games means fewer playable titles and more time spent away from the keyboard, so on second thought..
HL2 had nicer water though.
The files in question are not music and presumably not illegal to download as the publisher made them available on P2P networks without disclaimer. Did the user also download other music files? Perhaps, but it's questionable whether that's relevant or acceptable to bring forward in a court case related to these specific files.
Bing! You nailed it right there. Microsoft made an obvious policy decision long ago to shift developnment focus from end users to corporations, hence the ease with which 'bad' corporate users abuse the OS at the end user's expense.
" Let me know when you convert the world back to accepting that a megabyte is 1024 * 1024 bytes.
As you demonstrated there. Are you saying the general population is too stupid to understand? It's certainly not my stance.
How did you arrive at that conclusion? Is it possible to have 'free software' in the manner you describe which isn't 'open source'?
Only medical professionals really need to know the difference between the terms 'liver' and 'spleen', that doesn't make those who's knowledge ends at 'guts' any more intelligent. Leaving the dumbing down for Survivor and advertising agencies and maintain distinctions important to the field. Not everything must be reduced to pablum.
I see we're back on topic and discussing Outlook/Exchange. :D
You're preference is an interface that looks like Windows 3.1 or Word 2? I don't understand this permanent woody for boxes in boxes, the non-Photoshop world abandonded that GUI a decade ago.
Breathless awaiting how you were able to see the way the world uses the Gimp. The road to easy mod points here appears to be say anything negative, no matter how ridiculous, about the Gimp.
The traditional RPC port of course. ;)
Comparing his assertion to reality reveals it as the self-serving BS it is. Firefox's process differs from every other OSS project, including distro mirrors, exactly how? Where's the plague of compromised binaries? Donated mirrors have been in place for decade(s) now, if his claim had any basis in fact the method would have proved untenable years ago. It didn't, instead his employer's products continue to be the most exploitable in mass distribution. Reference reality, guys.
Or 64-bit binaries?
Murder, contract killers, I'm surprised terrorists and children in peril didn't make the analogy. How about something a bit more realistic? The bartender tells a patron who wants to go fishing the location of the nearest sporting goods store. The patron uses the fishing gear purchased out of season. The bartender knew it wasn't fishing season when providing the directions. No murders, no money changing hand with the bartender, no quantifiable loss, just breaking a law intended to preserve a resource. Is the bartender guilty of conspiracy? Only in a sense worthy of a Victor Hugo novel, a reasonable person would not connect the dots. In a civilized, humane society the patron bears full responsibility for the act, which is at best a misdemeanour and a small fine.
I also prefer Mozilla's use of the 'Tool' menu for pop-up blockers, forms, cookie management, etc. Much easier than burrowing down multiple levels into Firefox's Pref dialogue.
How about a chapter entiltled "McAfee and Norton: Terminating Enterprise Contracts with no Hard Feelings"?
You skimmed too fast, this booklet is obviously aimed at the Enterprise support. Unless of course you meant that to say typical MSCEs will find it too complex. ;)
Spoon feeding students doesn't teach them how to learn, of value long after the formulas are forgotten.