Forgive my ignorance and lack of interest in actually reading any of the articles on the subject...but exactly what emergency services might get interefered with? And don't say HAM radio operators. Emergency services in this country don't revolve around HAM operators, regardless of how infalted their ego is.
Well, I like at least half of what you've said here:
The wealthy should be given a reason to invest; since people rarely keep large quantities of physical cash laying around, the majority of wealth is kept in banks or as investments. If banks then turn around and loan out that money to, say, small businesses, invdividuals, etc, or invest that money in some other way (be it the stock market or whatever), then that money _does_ trickle down, at least to some degree.
Having the government reach in and taking [a disproportiaonate amount of] money from people is simply wrong. Just because some people are unable to work is no reason for them to get a free ride courtesy of the rest of society. People should depend on family, not government, for such assistance in their lives. If all else fails, turn to charity, but not to government. There's no reason I should work 50 weeks out of the year so someone else can take all 52 off. People unwilling to work are just SOL: they need to get with the program. Either choose to be a productive member of society or choose to get the hell out.
As for tax breaks, the government should give money back to the people they took it from. If the government recieves 90% of their income from the "rich", then 90% of any tax break should go right back to them: anything else and you're doing the accounting equivalent of doublespeak and simply shifting tax brakets around.
Why do so many people want an All-In-One government and not an All-In-One operating system...
If we need to depend on HAM radio operators to ensure that Medical/Police response teams can communicate during various crisis, then we have bigger problems than BPL causing HAM radio interference.
The fact of the matter is, wether or not you like HAM radio, the public should *NOT* have to depend on private citizens to get the help they need in the event of an emergency. Is it a nice "safety net"? Yes. But do I want to depend on a bunch of HAM radio operators to direct rescue efforts? Not really. I pay taxes for services like that, not for say, giving illegal aliens drivers licenses, as we (will) do here in California.
HAM radio isn't the first thing to suffer from progress and certainly wont be the last. The fact that NYC dwellers hadn't seen the stars in a bazillion years is proof enough of that. We allow a great deal to fall by the wayside in the name of progress. Not all of it is good, but if BPL can help bring cheap, fast, internet access to the masses, it's *my* opinion that HAM radio is an acceptable sacrifice. Of course, I'd like to find some middle ground where HAM operators don't suffer from spectrum interference, but all things considered, it is an acceptable loss.
Portage can be used to install binary (precompiled tbz2 packages of ebuilds).
From emerge --help:
--usepkg (-k short option)
Tell emerge to use binary packages (from $PKGDIR) if they are available, thus possibly avoiding some time-consuming compiles.This option is useful for CD installs; you can export PKGDIR=/mnt/cdrom/packages and then use this option to have emerge "pull" binary packages from the CD in order to satisfy dependencies.
--usepkgonly (-K short option)
Like --usepkg above, except this only allows the use of binary packages, and it will abort the emerge if the package is not available at the time of dependency calculation.
You can also, of course, emerge rpm and install any RPM packages. I'm not sure about debian.deb packages or slackware.tgz packages.
...and people aren't going to use linux if it confuses them. Most people don't care, let alone know how, their Windows computers work. They just care that they work and are compatible with the vast majority of their peers computers.
The fact of the matter is that damn near everyone know's how to use a Windows computer, even if they're clueless how it works. No vague command line programs. Very simliar user interface where ever you go. When your neighbour/friend/family member has a problem and asks you (because you're the local geek) how to fix it, you don't have to worry about wether they have KDE, Gnome, or some other desktop setup. Choice is great, but commonality is better - admining a mixed network can be a royal pain. Keeping unix/linux/windows/macs all working with all their perks for all their different versions *correctly* is a damn frustrating job. And just because you can tell your boss "hey look, we could move all our windows clients to this free operating system, with free software, and save xxxxx dollars!" doesn't make anyone understand how to use any of that software, it just confuses the hell out of them when they get home and can't figure out why their shiny new OpenOffice document doesn't open in Microsoft Word.
Except you can have it both ways. The problem is the patent system is broken; people who are either too stupid or too ignorant to be handing out patents, are.
It's bad rhetoric to force everything into one of two extremes. It's like saying everyone in jail must be guilty.
People and companies who invest substantial amounts of money, effort, and time deserve to be awarded patents for their labours. Does this mean that "one click shopping" deserves a patent? Of course not. But there are certainly some pieces of software which deserve to be protected.
No one "deserves" to get hacked and have their website vandalized. That's like saying anyone who doesn't have The Club in their car deserves to have their car broken into because they haven't taken the time to properly secure their car.
Here's a concept: Instead of holding a "how many people can you hurt by hacking their website" contest, have a "how many webservers can you fix because the admins are lazy" contest. That's a lot less malicious than hacking some family or small business website who haven't done anything to deserve this. How would you feel if I came into your house through that door you forgot to lock and smashed something important to you, then left a card saying that because you forgot to lock your door, you deserved what you got?
Don't even equate this to "technological darwinism" because it is anything but -- people are doing this to be assholes, not for survival. And any asshole script kiddie who does this kind of shit truly deserves to have the FBI knock down his door and drag his stupid ass off to prison.
Your post isn't insightful. It just shows how stupid people justify their stupid (and sometimes illegal) actions.
We'll be paying "royalties" on the "method" our bodies use to carry out their various bodily functions. Imaging getting 10 cents per person per breathe!
Why is this easier than emailing them about, say, knoppix? If I wanted to show one of my friends/family/co-workers/dog linux, I'd hand out Knoppix CD's at my door so they could see what linux can *really* do. Not to mention that most of my family/friends don't have xboxs, but DO have PC's.
You want to market linux games? Try a gentoo-live gaming CD.
If you want linux to be a gaming platform...then that's another story...and another argument for another time.
I should be required to pay for all the crappy songs you write so I can get the one or two *decent* songs on an album? They must be crazier than the RIAA!
Uh, those are the same fools who can drink, get this, decaffeinated coffee. I'm pretty sure the idea is to cut out the "decaffeinizing" step in production, which can negatively impact the flavor (as well as drive up costs). You make it sound like they're planning on replacing current crops with this decaffeinated stuff.
The rest of your post is asinine. You're probably more likely to see a random mutation "change the ecosystem" than flipping off some gene that controls wether a plant produces caffeine or not.
After all, it's your God-given right to lie after running down a couple of innocent people when doing 100+ MPH in a residential neighbourhood. I'm sure this is exactly why the founding father's wanted to protect civil liberties.
Simply put, anything is worth whatever you can get for it. I view the emergence of "online virtual merchandise" as another iteration of free markets, as well as a deeper extension into what we consider entertainment.
Many people are willing to drop hundreds to thousands of dollars to buy that brand spanking new plasma HDTV, or a new 500 dollar video card (which will cost half that in 2 months) for the sake of entertainment. If you're going to play an online game like EQ/UO/DAoC/SB/AO/AC for a greater period of time than you watch TV, then why not drop a couple hundred dollars buying that new item/cash/account on ebay? The monthly rate of MMORPGs is relatively cheap (compared to the cost of cable/satellite), and (most) items sold cost substantially less than a brandspanking new computer.
Frankly - I wouldn't be caught dead buying virtual crap like that. I do, however, sell to people who are willing to buy such merchandise. I also wouldn't spend $500 on a new video card that will cost me half as much if I wait a bit. But that's me.
The only thing that DOES suprise me, however, is that game companies have not yet begun exploiting this -- although I hear that Origin (of UO fame) is selling "premade" characters for a fee. And IIRC, UO2 was supposed to have an integrated virtualreal world economy (that might have been just a rumour, though). If I were a MMORPG developer, I would DEFINETLY consider the integration of a virtualRL market into my product, and milk the people for what they were willing to pay.
Vlad
You don't? The answers simple. They're idiots. They assume people care about a database that was practically unheard of before the story broke. And if your "users" are confused because they can't tell a database from a web browser, well, then you've got bigger problems than the name.
Slashdot Mirror
Forgive my ignorance and lack of interest in actually reading any of the articles on the subject...but exactly what emergency services might get interefered with? And don't say HAM radio operators. Emergency services in this country don't revolve around HAM operators, regardless of how infalted their ego is.
Well, I like at least half of what you've said here:
The wealthy should be given a reason to invest; since people rarely keep large quantities of physical cash laying around, the majority of wealth is kept in banks or as investments. If banks then turn around and loan out that money to, say, small businesses, invdividuals, etc, or invest that money in some other way (be it the stock market or whatever), then that money _does_ trickle down, at least to some degree.
Having the government reach in and taking [a disproportiaonate amount of] money from people is simply wrong. Just because some people are unable to work is no reason for them to get a free ride courtesy of the rest of society. People should depend on family, not government, for such assistance in their lives. If all else fails, turn to charity, but not to government. There's no reason I should work 50 weeks out of the year so someone else can take all 52 off. People unwilling to work are just SOL: they need to get with the program. Either choose to be a productive member of society or choose to get the hell out.
As for tax breaks, the government should give money back to the people they took it from. If the government recieves 90% of their income from the "rich", then 90% of any tax break should go right back to them: anything else and you're doing the accounting equivalent of doublespeak and simply shifting tax brakets around.
Why do so many people want an All-In-One government and not an All-In-One operating system...
If we need to depend on HAM radio operators to ensure that Medical/Police response teams can communicate during various crisis, then we have bigger problems than BPL causing HAM radio interference.
The fact of the matter is, wether or not you like HAM radio, the public should *NOT* have to depend on private citizens to get the help they need in the event of an emergency. Is it a nice "safety net"? Yes. But do I want to depend on a bunch of HAM radio operators to direct rescue efforts? Not really. I pay taxes for services like that, not for say, giving illegal aliens drivers licenses, as we (will) do here in California.
HAM radio isn't the first thing to suffer from progress and certainly wont be the last. The fact that NYC dwellers hadn't seen the stars in a bazillion years is proof enough of that. We allow a great deal to fall by the wayside in the name of progress. Not all of it is good, but if BPL can help bring cheap, fast, internet access to the masses, it's *my* opinion that HAM radio is an acceptable sacrifice. Of course, I'd like to find some middle ground where HAM operators don't suffer from spectrum interference, but all things considered, it is an acceptable loss.
Portage can be used to install binary (precompiled tbz2 packages of ebuilds).
.deb packages or slackware .tgz packages.
From emerge --help:
--usepkg (-k short option)
Tell emerge to use binary packages (from $PKGDIR) if they are available, thus possibly avoiding some time-consuming compiles.This option is useful for CD installs; you can export PKGDIR=/mnt/cdrom/packages and then use this option to have emerge "pull" binary packages from the CD in order to satisfy dependencies.
--usepkgonly (-K short option)
Like --usepkg above, except this only allows the use of binary packages, and it will abort the emerge if the package is not available at the time of dependency calculation.
You can also, of course, emerge rpm and install any RPM packages. I'm not sure about debian
Gentoo is also accept pre-orders for it's upcoming 1.4 release. Information can be found here, at the Gentoo Store.
They even have precompiled packages optimizaed for Athlon-XP's - drool!
...and people aren't going to use linux if it confuses them. Most people don't care, let alone know how, their Windows computers work. They just care that they work and are compatible with the vast majority of their peers computers.
The fact of the matter is that damn near everyone know's how to use a Windows computer, even if they're clueless how it works. No vague command line programs. Very simliar user interface where ever you go. When your neighbour/friend/family member has a problem and asks you (because you're the local geek) how to fix it, you don't have to worry about wether they have KDE, Gnome, or some other desktop setup. Choice is great, but commonality is better - admining a mixed network can be a royal pain. Keeping unix/linux/windows/macs all working with all their perks for all their different versions *correctly* is a damn frustrating job. And just because you can tell your boss "hey look, we could move all our windows clients to this free operating system, with free software, and save xxxxx dollars!" doesn't make anyone understand how to use any of that software, it just confuses the hell out of them when they get home and can't figure out why their shiny new OpenOffice document doesn't open in Microsoft Word.
Except you can have it both ways. The problem is the patent system is broken; people who are either too stupid or too ignorant to be handing out patents, are. It's bad rhetoric to force everything into one of two extremes. It's like saying everyone in jail must be guilty. People and companies who invest substantial amounts of money, effort, and time deserve to be awarded patents for their labours. Does this mean that "one click shopping" deserves a patent? Of course not. But there are certainly some pieces of software which deserve to be protected.
No one "deserves" to get hacked and have their website vandalized. That's like saying anyone who doesn't have The Club in their car deserves to have their car broken into because they haven't taken the time to properly secure their car.
Here's a concept: Instead of holding a "how many people can you hurt by hacking their website" contest, have a "how many webservers can you fix because the admins are lazy" contest. That's a lot less malicious than hacking some family or small business website who haven't done anything to deserve this. How would you feel if I came into your house through that door you forgot to lock and smashed something important to you, then left a card saying that because you forgot to lock your door, you deserved what you got?
Don't even equate this to "technological darwinism" because it is anything but -- people are doing this to be assholes, not for survival. And any asshole script kiddie who does this kind of shit truly deserves to have the FBI knock down his door and drag his stupid ass off to prison.
Your post isn't insightful. It just shows how stupid people justify their stupid (and sometimes illegal) actions.
Er, Mandrake (is less than) Gentoo.
I really need to start previewing my posts...
Mandrake Gentoo
BOTH AC AND DC?!?!
That's a buying point if I've ever heard one!
We'll be paying "royalties" on the "method" our bodies use to carry out their various bodily functions. Imaging getting 10 cents per person per breathe!
Why is this easier than emailing them about, say, knoppix? If I wanted to show one of my friends/family/co-workers/dog linux, I'd hand out Knoppix CD's at my door so they could see what linux can *really* do. Not to mention that most of my family/friends don't have xboxs, but DO have PC's.
You want to market linux games? Try a gentoo-live gaming CD.
If you want linux to be a gaming platform...then that's another story...and another argument for another time.
I should be required to pay for all the crappy songs you write so I can get the one or two *decent* songs on an album? They must be crazier than the RIAA!
As long as someone posts a bittorrent link after (preferably before) their site is /.'ed, I'll be happy.
Uh, those are the same fools who can drink, get this, decaffeinated coffee. I'm pretty sure the idea is to cut out the "decaffeinizing" step in production, which can negatively impact the flavor (as well as drive up costs). You make it sound like they're planning on replacing current crops with this decaffeinated stuff.
The rest of your post is asinine. You're probably more likely to see a random mutation "change the ecosystem" than flipping off some gene that controls wether a plant produces caffeine or not.
After all, it's your God-given right to lie after running down a couple of innocent people when doing 100+ MPH in a residential neighbourhood. I'm sure this is exactly why the founding father's wanted to protect civil liberties.
Simply put, anything is worth whatever you can get for it. I view the emergence of "online virtual merchandise" as another iteration of free markets, as well as a deeper extension into what we consider entertainment. Many people are willing to drop hundreds to thousands of dollars to buy that brand spanking new plasma HDTV, or a new 500 dollar video card (which will cost half that in 2 months) for the sake of entertainment. If you're going to play an online game like EQ/UO/DAoC/SB/AO/AC for a greater period of time than you watch TV, then why not drop a couple hundred dollars buying that new item/cash/account on ebay? The monthly rate of MMORPGs is relatively cheap (compared to the cost of cable/satellite), and (most) items sold cost substantially less than a brandspanking new computer. Frankly - I wouldn't be caught dead buying virtual crap like that. I do, however, sell to people who are willing to buy such merchandise. I also wouldn't spend $500 on a new video card that will cost me half as much if I wait a bit. But that's me. The only thing that DOES suprise me, however, is that game companies have not yet begun exploiting this -- although I hear that Origin (of UO fame) is selling "premade" characters for a fee. And IIRC, UO2 was supposed to have an integrated virtualreal world economy (that might have been just a rumour, though). If I were a MMORPG developer, I would DEFINETLY consider the integration of a virtualRL market into my product, and milk the people for what they were willing to pay. Vlad
You don't? The answers simple. They're idiots. They assume people care about a database that was practically unheard of before the story broke. And if your "users" are confused because they can't tell a database from a web browser, well, then you've got bigger problems than the name.