The new
Core Image
features seem really cool. However, the ATI Rage M6 (?) card in my Powerbook G4 is not listed under supported graphics cards. They do say "Core Image automatically scales as appropriate for systems with older graphics cards, for compatibility with any Tiger-compatible Mac," but what does that really mean? Which of the Core Image features am I not going to be able to use? Will any of those unuseable features be necessary for rudimentary GUI operations?
Put another way, what do the newer cards have that I don't? Core Image looks to me like the best new feature in Tiger, if I can actually use it. Quartz Extreme gave me a pretty good speed increase when it came out, and I would expect CoreImage to allow most graphics programs to work snappier, but that's all irrelevant if my card isn't up to snuff.
Beyond just saying "i don't trust my employees to carry these devices in the workplace" we should think about why do we need them in the workplace. Does this person *need* an iPod, or a digital camera as part of their job? No? Then there's really no reason for it to be there.
Obviously the amount of scrutiny you give employees depends on the sensitivity of the information they have access to. I did tech support for a well-known anti-virus company, and they didn't allow any sort of storage media in the building (but it would have been easy enough to sneak in a floppy, if I'd wanted to). Given their objectives, it makes sense to keep foreign media out of the building. It wouldn't look good if a virus wreaked havoc on their network.
That said, your statement is a bit ridiculous. Does anyone *need* an iPod other than Apple employees? Or possibly people working on the LOTR films, since I hear they used iPods as convenient Firewire hard drives. At my current job, the management has just decided to convert one of our lunchrooms into office space for managers. Do we *need* the lunchroom? No, not really. We could go out to eat every day, or sit outside with a bag lunch. But there are over 100 people who work in this building, and now we all have to share a much smaller space when we eat.
I've heard of workplaces that don't allow you to personalize your cubicle--no pictures of your kids, no plants, no Dilbert cartoons--and the rationale is the same. The employees don't *need* to personalize their work space. But what do you think is the psychological effect of banning personal items from work? Being in a cubicle is bad enough, but being in a cubicle that's exactly the same as every other one makes you feel like a bee in the hive. That feeling of alienation just breeds disgruntled employees, who are more likely to lash out at their employer.
And that doesn't even take into account employee retention. Who wants to work where they are treated with constant suspicion? My main point is that there are costs associated with banning mp3 players at work, and they may outweigh any security benefits.
Yes, iPods and USB watches are security concerns for many companies. But if an employee wants to do their employer damage, an iPod is not required. I think it's more dangerous to treat employees with distrust, because it makes them much more likely to scheme of more malicious ways to cause trouble.
Those in charge of company security should remember that these same employees bringing in iPods are the ones who were issued key cards to get into the building. Companies have no choice but to give their workers the benefit of the doubt.
We use a Sun calendar program. Seems to work well enough. Sharing documents is easy with a public directory where anyone in the company can dump files. I don't have a PDA, and don't know of anyone here who uses one for work purposes.
Good point. I think they're itching to get a piece of this anti-terrorism pie, and that might actually work. Especially since we're biotech, and potentially have data that could help people developing bio weapons.
Since we don't use Outlook now, your comment doesn't seem especially relevant. I don't care if our email client is OSS; I just care that it's not Outlook. Personally, I'd love it if we ssh'ed to a bash shell and used pine. Then maybe people would stop sending html formatted messages. We now use Netscape Messenger Express, which is nothing special, but at least doesn't have Outlook's abyssmal security record.
Not sure exactly what they did (perhaps just adjusted permissions so IE can't be launched) but I do know it had to be installed recently, since our Program Management software (a POS if I've ever seen one) is especially crashy with Mozilla. Not that it's very stable under IE, for that matter, but I hear the Mozilla crashes are less reproducible (I already asked about submitting bug reports). My response was to get the vendor to write standards-compliant software, but again, no one with any power really cares.
Right now we use Netscape Messenger Express. I don't care for it much (messages I've already read routinely show up as unread, but that's the only real bug I've encountered), but I really can't stand Outlook. What advantages does it have? Do I really need "return receipt" for emails? (What's really annoying is when I receive messages that want a receipt, but I'm not using Outlook. Etrade does that, and now they insist I haven't received any emails from them, and want to send me statements through snail mail).
Our medium sized company was recently purchased by a much bigger company. The IT people here are really on the ball, from email to our main website, but the new owners want to downgrade everything. Customer service for all other sites within the company have just been outsourced to India. The main company website is a portal run by some third party. What's ironic is that this company is gung-ho about acquisitions, yet they outsource a working, well-functioning part of the company to strangers.
Where I work, the new management is enamored of IE. Although our current IT dept. installed Mozilla on all our computers (and REMOVED IE) I hear we'll be forced to use Outlook for email in the near future. It makes me want to vomit. Whenever family or friends tell me about their computer problems, whether viruses or adware or whatever, my main advice is 1) stop using Internet Explorer and 2) stop using Outlook.
I've been posting news articles like this one around the workplace, but man, is it hard to get anyone to listen. If HQ won't even listen to this headquarters's own IT department, why should they listen to someone in R&D?
Awesome! Looks like I'll be able to run it from my Dreamcast, if it doesn't work on the Powerbook.
sarcasm often doesn't translate well in print
on
Xgrid Agent for Unix
·
· Score: 1
Well, sorry for not catching your sarcasm. It seems I'm not the only one who didn't get it, though. I guess that's why I see people using mock-html tags to indicate .
And I would taken your comment more lightly if I had known we have a common
foe.
But so is the law that makes it illegal (violation of fair-use).
Sorry, I must have an out-of-date copy of the United States Code here. Because mine doesn't say anything about the doctrine of fair use guaranteeing anybody the right to make perfect digital copies of copyrighted works.
Yeah, I guess your copy isout-of-date
because last I heard, we had a court case guaranteeing the right to make copies of video for personal use.
There are plenty of legitimate, yet illegal, purposes for computing in general.
Nope. By definition, if it's illegal, then it's not legitimate.
You're using a pretty narrow definition, holmes. My dictionary says legitimate also means "conforming to recognized principles or accepted rules and standards," and fair use is a recognized principle. So any law that tries to infringe upon our recognized freedom to make copies of purchased recordings is, in fact illegitimate. Likewise, a law prohibiting women from voting would be illegal, since we have a constitutional amendment guaranteeing that right. Not all laws are legal, you know.
The parent poster did mention decryption, but what about self-authored DVDs made with iMovie?
Rationalize all you want. The point is that the poster was talking about piracy. You might try to throw up a "but what about this? or this? or this?" smokescreen but that isn't going to fool anybody.
There's absolutely no just cause to take a potentially powerful new technology like Xgrid and sully it with implications that it's a handy-dandy tool for piracy. Doing so is incredibly short-sighted, and just plain dumb to boot.
(Incidentally, the China thing was just stupid. "What about using Xgrid to violate copyrights in countries where copyright law isn't enforced?" Dumbass.)
Not all countries walk step-in-step with the US re. copyright. Copyright is not a universal principle. If you don't believe in copyright, and your government doesn't recognize intellectual property, how is it even possible to be guilty of piracy/copyright violation? Dumbass.
Congratulations! Because you're too narrow-minded to see outside the scope of the United States, I'm making you my first foe.
I agree that it was pretty disrespectful for the NY Times to call Lula an alcoholic. From what I've seen of him, I like Lula. And if I were leader of a country, I wouldn' be surprised if I drank heavily. But are you really going to try to defend former leaders of Brazil? Like
Collor de Mello?
Or Sarney?
That's not even mentioning the series of general-presidents during the military regime in the '60s.
Lula has earned my respect through his years as a labor leader, and the initiatives he's taken since he's been president. He's made strides in using open source in government, and has a decent record in environmental and economic issues. If I were Brazilian, I'd be pissed about a specious attack on the first good president my country had in a long time. He's more of an exception than the rule, regarding getting respect.
But I don't think much of the US's leadership either, so maybe it's just me.
I've already responded to this article, and have no mod points today. Somebody mod this guy down. If you want to complain about Apple, make a valid point. Plenty of developers were unhappy about Rhapsody (OS X precursor), and plenty of people are unhappy about paying for annual OS upgrades. Or the one-button mouse on laptops. Or the inability to run some Windows software outside of Virtual PC. Regardless of whether their complaints should be addressed, the complaints aren't TOTALLY INVENTED like yours.
Someone else already mentioned Rendezvous etc., but another point is that Apple is letting a whole slew of people tinker with UNIX without having to reboot into a foreign, newbie-unfriendly, OS. I've written a few shell scripts myself. Using a BSD foundation in itself helps the open-source community.
Potentially, sure it's illegal. But so is the law that makes it illegal (violation of fair-use). Why should we "make a concerted effort to stay away from stuff that illegal"? There are plenty of legitimate, yet illegal, purposes for computing in general. Most of which pertain to circumventing encryption.
The parent poster did mention decryption, but what about self-authored DVDs made with iMovie? The ripping and recompression would still be required if, say, I wanted to convert a DVD to VCD format for a friend living in India (or anywhere else VCD is popular).
Or what about public-domain works that are still distributed as encrypted DVDs? Legally, I can copy "It's a Wonderful Life" and sell copies, if anyone wanted to buy them. Or public-domain, ROT-13 encrypted Adobe ebooks.
And finally, what about slashdot readers in China, where intellectual property is nonexistent? Or in other countries that DON'T have a DMCA?
Not too many years back there was a series of crimes, including at least one rape, that were committed by a man wearing a uniform. He had a badge and a car with a light bar and siren.
You're implying the "man wearing a uniform" wasn't a cop, but I know of multiple cases of cops raping women. In Austin, TX, there was a cop who used his authority to rape a pregnant woman. In Eugene, OR, there was a similar scandal, only the guy coerced women to perform oral sex rather than raping them. Not that it's any better.
Is there any way to safely get out of a situation where you're attacked by a dirty cop? If you kill him in self-defense, would you still be tried as a "cop-killer"? Dealing with cops sucks in every respect, and this ruling just makes it worse. Do note, however, that although you have to identify yourself, you are NOT required to present an ID card or document. The cop has to take your word on it.
I understand your point--for just comparing prices of upgrades, you need to start at the same time (1995 in this case). But even so, there are other variables involved in keeping a computer up-to-date. First, you left out Windows 2000. I got my copy for $5, because the University of Texas made a Faustian deal with Microsoft (millions of $s) so students can purchase software for dirt cheap. But how much of my tuition and fees went towards that? At any rate, you can't forget 2000, because it's the best Windows OS to date. Not that that's saying much.
As with any bloatware, each consecutive version of Windows runs slower on a given system. That means upgrading your OS is pointless unless you get a new motherboard and CPU. Tack on $300 to each upgrade for that variable. Conversely, Mac OS 10.3 runs significantly faster than 10.2 did, and 10.2 ran faster than 10.1, which is the version that was installed when I bought my Powerbook. I expect at least three more years of solid use from my Mac, and it'll still be useful years after that.
Let's redo the math:
95 + 98 + Me + 2000 + XP = $399 + 399 + 399 + 399 + 399 = $1995
Realistically, you could subtract about $600 since Me, 2000, and XP will all run on comparable hardware, with a speed penalty. That still makes Windows more expensive to maintain.
But wait! While running Windows Me, you have a catastrophic failure caused by an unfortunate crash during a disk write. Four days later, after three unsuccessful reinstallations and finally a "downgrade" to Win98, you are able to recover most of your data, except for the 50 page grant application you were working on. Unfortunately, the deadline is in a week and you are unable to finish the application in time. Though you were a shoe-in for the grant ($25000, earmarked for new computer equipment), the committee doesn't accept late applications. Too bad for you. It was a really good grant application, too.
Suddenly, the cost of upgrading the Mac seems trivial.
Sound contrived? Variations on the above theme are the reason I switched to OS X, and the only regret I have is I can't play old Monkey Island games on my Powerbook. VirtualPC is still too slow.
This is all fine and dandy--
but when are we going to be able to buy the
fractal antennas
we heard about a few years ago. They were supposed to be the bomb, and I wanted one for TV, but they don't seem to sell any consumer models. What up with that?
The last Brazilian aggression outside the country was in 1822, I'm told.
From 1864-1870, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay fought a war against Paraguay. 90% of Paraguayan men were killed. I'm honestly surprised they held up for six whole years.
I'm not sure what defines a third-world country. I heard Ireland was considered third-world until very recently. Second world (almost never heard the term used) I think refers to to countries that were part of the Soviet bloc.
I can't speak for the parent, but I agree with you that there's nothing wrong with charging for software. Especially if you get to see the source when you pay for it. But charging for closed operating systems, well, that's a very particular type of software that affects all the other software. I use a proprietary OS (OS X) and am very happy with it. But I also don't have crashes, and can fiddle around with any of the many open source, free as in BSD, programs that came with my proprietary OS. It would be great if Apple opened up a couple more layers of OS X, esp. Aqua, but for now it's the best option for me. Even if Apple opened all the source to the OS (but not apps like Safari, iTunes, or iMovie), they would still be able to sell operating systems because of the huge number of developers working to improve it. People would be able to write their own patches, but all the major releases would have enough extra features (e.g., Expose) that make them worth the money.
When I ran Windows, I put off upgrading as long as possible, because the new features never made my life easier. They were always eye candy like the anti-functional Windows XP Explorer, with the useless panel on the left side that just takes up space. Or if I want to find files, I have to go into Preference and verify that I want to both SEE hidden files and also want my searches to SEARCH those hidden/system files. Don't get me started about viruses/security. If Windows were open source, they'd never see a dime of my money because they don't innovate. There are good reasons people are dedicated to Windows' destruction.
Note that I could be running OpenDarwin on my laptop, or Yellow Dog Linux, or Gentoo, if I were really opposed to the proprietary nature of my OS. However, I feel the productivity I get from using OS X justifies its cost. I'm not running a server, or I wouldn't think of using a proprietary OS. If there were a completely open and free OS that worked as well for me on the desktop, I'd gladly use it.
As long as people actually run applications on their operating systems, there will be a place for proprietary software. I can't see someone writing an open version of Logic ProTools, complete with banks of sound samples and other content that would be a real pain-in-the-ass the generate yourself. But please, separate the OS from the apps, because they are fundamentally different. Microsoft abuses its position as the OS vendor to release crap like DRMed Windows Media Player, and because they keep their source locked up tight (with the exception of a leaked CD here and there), there's no way to uninstall it. If Apple did that kind of crap (registration codes, phoning home before letting me install) I'd seriously consider reformatting and installing Yellow Dog. I believe a more open OS is actually better for application developers than a closed source one. There shouldn't be such a thing as "secret APIs" like in Windows.
Open everything up, and may the best coders win! Software for profit may not disappear, but the crappiest software will.
French isn't even in the top ten! I will concede that it is the top second language, but still.
(BTW, there are several other versions of the top languages on the linked site, but NONE of them show native French speakers outnumbering Portuguese speakers, so:p The asterisks indicate there are more than a single version of the language included, since Chinese "dialects," for example, are mutually incomprehensible and ought to be considered separate languages, IMHO.)
Back on topic--Lula is doing a great job, even if some of his leftist buddies feel a bit betrayed (re. GMO soybeans, for example) and the official embrace of open software is really going to help people. There are internet cafes running Linux, so those without computers still have opportunities to learn. In the US, many people are willing to pay extra money for software to save themselves some labor. In Brazil, labor is the cheapest resource there is, so people are more willing to take the time to learn how to use Linux rather than pay a Microsoft fee. Eventually Linux will be as easy to use as Windows, but I don't know how good that is. The farther you are abstracted from what the computer's doing, the less you understand what's going on under the hood. How much you want to bet that Brazilians learning Linux hands-on are going to be way more likely to know how to troubleshoot a malfunctioning internet connection than someone who only knows XP.
Wow. A guy that follows the porn industry news. You must be really cool.
Not only did I read about this story on fark (several times, with followups and extra details), it was in the NY Times as well. The reason the poster isn't "really cool" isn't because he knows about the recent HIV scare, but because he's insinuating that all Brazilian women are equivalent to porn stars.
Even if you never look at porn, if you care about free speech you should care about this story, b/c Ashcroft is itching for an excuse to ban pornography, and I wouldn't put it past him to cite "public health concerns" as a reason to do so. Or at least to heavily regulate the industry (which the gov't has no business doing).
I've been wondering about the Smart Cards for awhile, since I'm supposed to be able to do nifty stuff with my Target Visa, like download coupons to the card. And I have a mostly useless American Express Blue, which would be great for online transactions if it worked with something other than Windows.
But even if the card readers work under OS X, don't most applications have software to install, too? Anybody have any experience with actually using a card/reader in practice, rather than just getting the reader to work? Rephrased: anyone able to write to the card as well as read it?
My gut reaction is to think you're a troll, but you're serious, aren't you? Do you really think therapy is all about id and ego and Freudian psychoanalysis? I doubt many pschologists would claim that they understand the human mind. Or psychiatrists.
I can't say I really get where you're coming from--you obviously have a problem with psychiatry in its current form, but do you think it's impossible to understand anything about the human mind? Or is it more the over/mis-prescription of drugs you have a problem with? Do you think all mentally ill people are faking it? That if they are "forced by circumstances" they will miraculously overcome their illnesses? Such a point of view seems very unsympathetic, to me. Do you know anyone with depression, severe anxiety, or schizophrenia?
Mental illnesses come in many forms, and not all are treatable with drugs. Autism comes to mind--behavioral therapy works extremely well to socialize individuals, although there isn't any drug treatment for autism (yet). Acquired mental illnesses are an entirely different story. People who experience psychological trauma develop fairly consistent behavioral syndromes, and a lot of these have been scientifically characterized. Schizophrenia is an organic brain disorder, so all behavioral therapy can do is help socialize those who are afflicted (similar to autism, in that respect). Psychology can certainly be scientific, though there is a lot of unscientific speculation due to the complex nature of human behavior. Give them some credit.
Slashdot Mirror
Put another way, what do the newer cards have that I don't? Core Image looks to me like the best new feature in Tiger, if I can actually use it. Quartz Extreme gave me a pretty good speed increase when it came out, and I would expect CoreImage to allow most graphics programs to work snappier, but that's all irrelevant if my card isn't up to snuff.
That said, your statement is a bit ridiculous. Does anyone *need* an iPod other than Apple employees? Or possibly people working on the LOTR films, since I hear they used iPods as convenient Firewire hard drives. At my current job, the management has just decided to convert one of our lunchrooms into office space for managers. Do we *need* the lunchroom? No, not really. We could go out to eat every day, or sit outside with a bag lunch. But there are over 100 people who work in this building, and now we all have to share a much smaller space when we eat.
I've heard of workplaces that don't allow you to personalize your cubicle--no pictures of your kids, no plants, no Dilbert cartoons--and the rationale is the same. The employees don't *need* to personalize their work space. But what do you think is the psychological effect of banning personal items from work? Being in a cubicle is bad enough, but being in a cubicle that's exactly the same as every other one makes you feel like a bee in the hive. That feeling of alienation just breeds disgruntled employees, who are more likely to lash out at their employer.
And that doesn't even take into account employee retention. Who wants to work where they are treated with constant suspicion? My main point is that there are costs associated with banning mp3 players at work, and they may outweigh any security benefits.
Those in charge of company security should remember that these same employees bringing in iPods are the ones who were issued key cards to get into the building. Companies have no choice but to give their workers the benefit of the doubt.
We use a Sun calendar program. Seems to work well enough. Sharing documents is easy with a public directory where anyone in the company can dump files. I don't have a PDA, and don't know of anyone here who uses one for work purposes.
Good point. I think they're itching to get a piece of this anti-terrorism pie, and that might actually work. Especially since we're biotech, and potentially have data that could help people developing bio weapons.
Since we don't use Outlook now, your comment doesn't seem especially relevant. I don't care if our email client is OSS; I just care that it's not Outlook. Personally, I'd love it if we ssh'ed to a bash shell and used pine. Then maybe people would stop sending html formatted messages. We now use Netscape Messenger Express, which is nothing special, but at least doesn't have Outlook's abyssmal security record.
Not sure exactly what they did (perhaps just adjusted permissions so IE can't be launched) but I do know it had to be installed recently, since our Program Management software (a POS if I've ever seen one) is especially crashy with Mozilla. Not that it's very stable under IE, for that matter, but I hear the Mozilla crashes are less reproducible (I already asked about submitting bug reports). My response was to get the vendor to write standards-compliant software, but again, no one with any power really cares.
Our medium sized company was recently purchased by a much bigger company. The IT people here are really on the ball, from email to our main website, but the new owners want to downgrade everything. Customer service for all other sites within the company have just been outsourced to India. The main company website is a portal run by some third party. What's ironic is that this company is gung-ho about acquisitions, yet they outsource a working, well-functioning part of the company to strangers.
I've been posting news articles like this one around the workplace, but man, is it hard to get anyone to listen. If HQ won't even listen to this headquarters's own IT department, why should they listen to someone in R&D?
Bah. Anyone have any advice on this?
Awesome! Looks like I'll be able to run it from my Dreamcast, if it doesn't work on the Powerbook.
And I would taken your comment more lightly if I had known we have a common foe.
Congratulations! Because you're too narrow-minded to see outside the scope of the United States, I'm making you my first foe.
I agree that it was pretty disrespectful for the NY Times to call Lula an alcoholic. From what I've seen of him, I like Lula. And if I were leader of a country, I wouldn' be surprised if I drank heavily. But are you really going to try to defend former leaders of Brazil? Like Collor de Mello? Or Sarney? That's not even mentioning the series of general-presidents during the military regime in the '60s.
Lula has earned my respect through his years as a labor leader, and the initiatives he's taken since he's been president. He's made strides in using open source in government, and has a decent record in environmental and economic issues. If I were Brazilian, I'd be pissed about a specious attack on the first good president my country had in a long time. He's more of an exception than the rule, regarding getting respect.
But I don't think much of the US's leadership either, so maybe it's just me.
Someone else already mentioned Rendezvous etc., but another point is that Apple is letting a whole slew of people tinker with UNIX without having to reboot into a foreign, newbie-unfriendly, OS. I've written a few shell scripts myself. Using a BSD foundation in itself helps the open-source community.
The parent poster did mention decryption, but what about self-authored DVDs made with iMovie? The ripping and recompression would still be required if, say, I wanted to convert a DVD to VCD format for a friend living in India (or anywhere else VCD is popular).
Or what about public-domain works that are still distributed as encrypted DVDs? Legally, I can copy "It's a Wonderful Life" and sell copies, if anyone wanted to buy them. Or public-domain, ROT-13 encrypted Adobe ebooks.
And finally, what about slashdot readers in China, where intellectual property is nonexistent? Or in other countries that DON'T have a DMCA?
Is there any way to safely get out of a situation where you're attacked by a dirty cop? If you kill him in self-defense, would you still be tried as a "cop-killer"? Dealing with cops sucks in every respect, and this ruling just makes it worse. Do note, however, that although you have to identify yourself, you are NOT required to present an ID card or document. The cop has to take your word on it.
As with any bloatware, each consecutive version of Windows runs slower on a given system. That means upgrading your OS is pointless unless you get a new motherboard and CPU. Tack on $300 to each upgrade for that variable. Conversely, Mac OS 10.3 runs significantly faster than 10.2 did, and 10.2 ran faster than 10.1, which is the version that was installed when I bought my Powerbook. I expect at least three more years of solid use from my Mac, and it'll still be useful years after that.
Let's redo the math:
95 + 98 + Me + 2000 + XP = $399 + 399 + 399 + 399 + 399 = $1995
Realistically, you could subtract about $600 since Me, 2000, and XP will all run on comparable hardware, with a speed penalty. That still makes Windows more expensive to maintain.
But wait! While running Windows Me, you have a catastrophic failure caused by an unfortunate crash during a disk write. Four days later, after three unsuccessful reinstallations and finally a "downgrade" to Win98, you are able to recover most of your data, except for the 50 page grant application you were working on. Unfortunately, the deadline is in a week and you are unable to finish the application in time. Though you were a shoe-in for the grant ($25000, earmarked for new computer equipment), the committee doesn't accept late applications. Too bad for you. It was a really good grant application, too.
Suddenly, the cost of upgrading the Mac seems trivial.
Sound contrived? Variations on the above theme are the reason I switched to OS X, and the only regret I have is I can't play old Monkey Island games on my Powerbook. VirtualPC is still too slow.
To those who didn't click your link, this seems to be quite a controversial subject.
This is all fine and dandy--
but when are we going to be able to buy the fractal antennas we heard about a few years ago. They were supposed to be the bomb, and I wanted one for TV, but they don't seem to sell any consumer models. What up with that?
From 1864-1870, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay fought a war against Paraguay. 90% of Paraguayan men were killed. I'm honestly surprised they held up for six whole years.
I'm not sure what defines a third-world country. I heard Ireland was considered third-world until very recently. Second world (almost never heard the term used) I think refers to to countries that were part of the Soviet bloc.
When I ran Windows, I put off upgrading as long as possible, because the new features never made my life easier. They were always eye candy like the anti-functional Windows XP Explorer, with the useless panel on the left side that just takes up space. Or if I want to find files, I have to go into Preference and verify that I want to both SEE hidden files and also want my searches to SEARCH those hidden/system files. Don't get me started about viruses/security. If Windows were open source, they'd never see a dime of my money because they don't innovate. There are good reasons people are dedicated to Windows' destruction.
Note that I could be running OpenDarwin on my laptop, or Yellow Dog Linux, or Gentoo, if I were really opposed to the proprietary nature of my OS. However, I feel the productivity I get from using OS X justifies its cost. I'm not running a server, or I wouldn't think of using a proprietary OS. If there were a completely open and free OS that worked as well for me on the desktop, I'd gladly use it.
As long as people actually run applications on their operating systems, there will be a place for proprietary software. I can't see someone writing an open version of Logic ProTools, complete with banks of sound samples and other content that would be a real pain-in-the-ass the generate yourself. But please, separate the OS from the apps, because they are fundamentally different. Microsoft abuses its position as the OS vendor to release crap like DRMed Windows Media Player, and because they keep their source locked up tight (with the exception of a leaked CD here and there), there's no way to uninstall it. If Apple did that kind of crap (registration codes, phoning home before letting me install) I'd seriously consider reformatting and installing Yellow Dog. I believe a more open OS is actually better for application developers than a closed source one. There shouldn't be such a thing as "secret APIs" like in Windows.
Open everything up, and may the best coders win! Software for profit may not disappear, but the crappiest software will.
(BTW, there are several other versions of the top languages on the linked site, but NONE of them show native French speakers outnumbering Portuguese speakers, so :p The asterisks indicate there are more than a single version of the language included, since Chinese "dialects," for example, are mutually incomprehensible and ought to be considered separate languages, IMHO.)
Back on topic--Lula is doing a great job, even if some of his leftist buddies feel a bit betrayed (re. GMO soybeans, for example) and the official embrace of open software is really going to help people. There are internet cafes running Linux, so those without computers still have opportunities to learn. In the US, many people are willing to pay extra money for software to save themselves some labor. In Brazil, labor is the cheapest resource there is, so people are more willing to take the time to learn how to use Linux rather than pay a Microsoft fee. Eventually Linux will be as easy to use as Windows, but I don't know how good that is. The farther you are abstracted from what the computer's doing, the less you understand what's going on under the hood. How much you want to bet that Brazilians learning Linux hands-on are going to be way more likely to know how to troubleshoot a malfunctioning internet connection than someone who only knows XP.
Not only did I read about this story on fark (several times, with followups and extra details), it was in the NY Times as well. The reason the poster isn't "really cool" isn't because he knows about the recent HIV scare, but because he's insinuating that all Brazilian women are equivalent to porn stars.
Even if you never look at porn, if you care about free speech you should care about this story, b/c Ashcroft is itching for an excuse to ban pornography, and I wouldn't put it past him to cite "public health concerns" as a reason to do so. Or at least to heavily regulate the industry (which the gov't has no business doing).
But even if the card readers work under OS X, don't most applications have software to install, too? Anybody have any experience with actually using a card/reader in practice, rather than just getting the reader to work? Rephrased: anyone able to write to the card as well as read it?
I can't say I really get where you're coming from--you obviously have a problem with psychiatry in its current form, but do you think it's impossible to understand anything about the human mind? Or is it more the over/mis-prescription of drugs you have a problem with? Do you think all mentally ill people are faking it? That if they are "forced by circumstances" they will miraculously overcome their illnesses? Such a point of view seems very unsympathetic, to me. Do you know anyone with depression, severe anxiety, or schizophrenia?
Mental illnesses come in many forms, and not all are treatable with drugs. Autism comes to mind--behavioral therapy works extremely well to socialize individuals, although there isn't any drug treatment for autism (yet). Acquired mental illnesses are an entirely different story. People who experience psychological trauma develop fairly consistent behavioral syndromes, and a lot of these have been scientifically characterized. Schizophrenia is an organic brain disorder, so all behavioral therapy can do is help socialize those who are afflicted (similar to autism, in that respect). Psychology can certainly be scientific, though there is a lot of unscientific speculation due to the complex nature of human behavior. Give them some credit.