A good idea crippled by human failings. Too bad. I have a hard time believing that the founders didn't think that it would serve as a platform for ugly old men to masturbate to each other though.
"Reminds me of a joke where an American actually 'got' sarcasm for the first time."
Whatever. I was watching "As time goes by" (britcom starring Judy Dench) with some friends. Jean and Lionel took a trip to Hollywood to shop a story to a production company. A production assistant (obviously an American character played by a British actor) came on the set and asked where Lionel was (he was in the toilet.) When Dench replied he was taking a leak the "American" looked toward the ceiling and covering his head. Everyone of my friends laughed and one of them said "The British must be idiots!" A bit harsh, perhaps but to accuse an American of not getting sarcasm is a little strange to me. Maybe it seems that way since we've moved on from sarcasm to irony.
This guy Ballmer hasn't shown me that he has any "vision", something that simply oozes out of Jobs. Ballmer and his team appear to constantly be playing "catch-up"; Apple trots out an mp3 player that becomes the rage of the info age, Ballmer says "ooh, I want that!" and they scrape together a brown thing that no one buys. Jobs presents the iPhone to a cheering crowd, now people ask me where my iPhone is (I don't have or want one), Ballmer is still trying to get his mobile acto together. They can't produce a successful, hip marketing campaign if Ballmer's mother's life depended on it, and haven't since those losing commercials Gates did with Sienfeld. Before even. Remember the Vista install "party" commercials? Holy crap. Maybe Microsoft simply needs to shake things up? They kind of did that over the spring, but two executives isn't really a shake-up.
Feh. Until Amazon stops dealing with DRM I won't even bother. That and their ridiculous $10 per eBook pricing. But this is definitely good for the authors.
"The license prohibits liberalness, because you are only allowed to share source code under strict conditions. It prohibits zealotry, because it ensures that others are free to fork a project and not bow to your vision of a project."
Never the less he and he alone maintains the reference kernel source. That's a potential problem. Or- explain to me why it isn't.
"......is why lots of businesses won't touch open source software."
Define "lots". Seems like every web shop I've ever walked into was using a LAMP stack. I currently work for a software shop that makes configuration software for the company's hardware products, very closed & proprietary. But we use a number of OSS tools (subversion, right off the top of my head.) So when *I* hear the technically non-quantitative term "lots" tossed around I tend to get curious about what exactly it means...
"Only a solution to "How do I get this running" and not "What is this thing doing?" The lack of source is a bit offputting to me. I will look at it, but I may wait to roll it out.
I would tend to agree, only because I'm extremely paranoid when it comes to security; I'd do some site analysis and make sure unexpected connections to foreign hosts aren't going out over the wire. If they were I'd want to do some code analysis to see what exactly is going on. Or if I wanted to add some customization: extremely important. But; in a pinch it sounds like a really worthwhile solution.
"It's a pretty well known fact that in most western countries there are schemes in place to allow intelligence agencies direct internal access to cell phone provider networks."
All the more reason to port Zimmerman's Zfone to the iPhone and Android and any other smart phone you can think of.
To be precise, it was the Soviets who did that, under direct orders of Stalin. The Soviets were actually given the task of taking Berlin, American & British troops did not take part in the Battle of Berlin until after the Soviets won it, they only cut up and occupied the four sectors along with France afterward. The Soviet 3rd Shock Army took the Reichstag and discovered the charred bodies of Hitler and Braun in the rear grounds. He decreed in secret order that the remains were to be disposed of, and no mention of this was to be made to the British and American forces. When asked directly by the Allies the Soviet 3rd SA commander Kutznetsov shrugged and said he didn't know anything about Hitler or his whereabouts. To this day scholars are still trying to understand Stalin's reasoning for the secrecy.
Then, almost at once, all the users of social neworking, games, apps, all of it, almost to a man, woke up, and yelled "I've been spending 10 years of my life doing what????
"Well, at least you had the gonads to post it under your own account..."
Why, should I fear your almighty wrath?
"However, in a lot of less well-off countries in the world, there IS a perception that Americans (in general) have an inordinately large amount of money."
And I should give a sh*t because...? I don't know anyone where *I* live who lights a cigar with a pile of money. I work very hard and save as much as I can; I've been given nothing, and earned *everything* I have. So you tell me how much of I sh*t I should give to your idiotic perceptions. You know the Mikado? One of my favorites; "...your notions, though many, are not worth a penny."
And f*ck off.
Give them some credit. First, they're gonna spend a few million on espionage, after they steal the code and a prototype, they'll trot out a completely re-designed package, Chinese internationalization; and eureka! The People's Phone.
I feel for google. On one hand their "Do no evil" mantra is merely window dressing if they in fact, do evil, which helping a repressive government surely is. On the other hand, not having a direct presence in an emerging market is incredibly harmful to a global business. In my opinion google need to at least pay lip service to the PRC but continue to out perform China's own Baidu. This is the short-coming of a repressive gov; if they continue to step on and censor superior technologies eventually people are going to shrug and circumvent the "accepted" technology in favor of the one that works.
"...once you have their MO there is also enourmous value in disrupting/corrupting their communications channels."
Ok, that's a knee-jerk reaction, and a natural enough one. Its also the typical reaction of animals. The intelligent human being sets himself aside from the animals by being smarter then them. I wouldn't disrupt their comm., I'd encourage it, help it even. Learn everything I could. Then perhaps feed it a little disinformation, wait, watch, learn more. Watch how the animals react. You could learn a lot about human nature simply by reading Frank Herbert's Dune trilogy. Especially the beginning of the first book, where Paul is given the test of the Gom Jabbar by the Reverend Mother Mohiam. An animal will always jerk its paw out of the box. A human being stands the pain, and waits for the right time and finds the right way to deal with the situation. The reaction of our politicians to these terrorist groups are little more than children playing complicated games with big, expensive toys. Running around, masturbating, playing politics, blowing our money, letting people die. I hate them. They have no clue how to deal with this shit.
...that's the United States government's fault and equates them to China?
US haters aside, it does show the complete moronic ineptitude of a huge, unwieldy bureaucracy like the US Gov., and Al Qaeda's one Ace down their collective holes; especially after the Wash. Post's story about all the spy agencies the US has set up as a reaction to 9/11 and how bloated and ineffective they are. If I were an intelligent spy hunter I'd encourage Al F*cknut to post all the information they wanted. And read. Its takes a real pack of idiots not to see the value in that.
You know what would be great? A steampunk style giant robot. Think if Transformers had been created back in the 50's, Optomus Prime might have been made partly from an Edsel.
Slashdot Mirror
Kind of my first thought when I read that; maybe not the best move.
"Who really wants to sit around talking to strangers knowing they will probably just hit Next right when you're starting to get interested?"
Another satisfied Chatroulette user?
"...he should have stuck to comedy..."
His recurring sketch "What can you do for me, Al Franken." now makes a lot of sense and fits comfortably in his current context...
Ok Al, we know its you.
A good idea crippled by human failings. Too bad. I have a hard time believing that the founders didn't think that it would serve as a platform for ugly old men to masturbate to each other though.
"Them that advertise get eaten."
Indeed. Stephen Hawking would agree with you.
The "free market" theory is obviously worth as much as tits on a bull when it comes to ISPs.
That's funny, I feel the same way about anything Al Franken has to say about, well, anything.
"Reminds me of a joke where an American actually 'got' sarcasm for the first time."
Whatever. I was watching "As time goes by" (britcom starring Judy Dench) with some friends. Jean and Lionel took a trip to Hollywood to shop a story to a production company. A production assistant (obviously an American character played by a British actor) came on the set and asked where Lionel was (he was in the toilet.) When Dench replied he was taking a leak the "American" looked toward the ceiling and covering his head. Everyone of my friends laughed and one of them said "The British must be idiots!"
A bit harsh, perhaps but to accuse an American of not getting sarcasm is a little strange to me. Maybe it seems that way since we've moved on from sarcasm to irony.
This guy Ballmer hasn't shown me that he has any "vision", something that simply oozes out of Jobs. Ballmer and his team appear to constantly be playing "catch-up"; Apple trots out an mp3 player that becomes the rage of the info age, Ballmer says "ooh, I want that!" and they scrape together a brown thing that no one buys. Jobs presents the iPhone to a cheering crowd, now people ask me where my iPhone is (I don't have or want one), Ballmer is still trying to get his mobile acto together. They can't produce a successful, hip marketing campaign if Ballmer's mother's life depended on it, and haven't since those losing commercials Gates did with Sienfeld. Before even. Remember the Vista install "party" commercials? Holy crap. Maybe Microsoft simply needs to shake things up? They kind of did that over the spring, but two executives isn't really a shake-up.
Feh. Until Amazon stops dealing with DRM I won't even bother. That and their ridiculous $10 per eBook pricing. But this is definitely good for the authors.
"The license prohibits liberalness, because you are only allowed to share source code under strict conditions. It prohibits zealotry, because it ensures that others are free to fork a project and not bow to your vision of a project."
Never the less he and he alone maintains the reference kernel source. That's a potential problem. Or- explain to me why it isn't.
...times are tough. What else are you going to do when the Death Star's runnin' on empty? Do ya think that bank is part of the Rebel Alliance?
Some one modded me "flamebait" huh? Oh really...?
"......is why lots of businesses won't touch open source software."
Define "lots". Seems like every web shop I've ever walked into was using a LAMP stack. I currently work for a software shop that makes configuration software for the company's hardware products, very closed & proprietary. But we use a number of OSS tools (subversion, right off the top of my head.) So when *I* hear the technically non-quantitative term "lots" tossed around I tend to get curious about what exactly it means...
"Only a solution to "How do I get this running" and not "What is this thing doing?" The lack of source is a bit offputting to me. I will look at it, but I may wait to roll it out.
I would tend to agree, only because I'm extremely paranoid when it comes to security; I'd do some site analysis and make sure unexpected connections to foreign hosts aren't going out over the wire. If they were I'd want to do some code analysis to see what exactly is going on. Or if I wanted to add some customization: extremely important. But; in a pinch it sounds like a really worthwhile solution.
"It's a pretty well known fact that in most western countries there are schemes in place to allow intelligence agencies direct internal access to cell phone provider networks."
All the more reason to port Zimmerman's Zfone to the iPhone and Android and any other smart phone you can think of.
"...the allies made damn sure of that."
To be precise, it was the Soviets who did that, under direct orders of Stalin. The Soviets were actually given the task of taking Berlin, American & British troops did not take part in the Battle of Berlin until after the Soviets won it, they only cut up and occupied the four sectors along with France afterward. The Soviet 3rd Shock Army took the Reichstag and discovered the charred bodies of Hitler and Braun in the rear grounds. He decreed in secret order that the remains were to be disposed of, and no mention of this was to be made to the British and American forces. When asked directly by the Allies the Soviet 3rd SA commander Kutznetsov shrugged and said he didn't know anything about Hitler or his whereabouts. To this day scholars are still trying to understand Stalin's reasoning for the secrecy.
"...this new social network..."
Then, almost at once, all the users of social neworking, games, apps, all of it, almost to a man, woke up, and yelled "I've been spending 10 years of my life doing what????
"Well, at least you had the gonads to post it under your own account..."
Why, should I fear your almighty wrath?
"However, in a lot of less well-off countries in the world, there IS a perception that Americans (in general) have an inordinately large amount of money."
And I should give a sh*t because...? I don't know anyone where *I* live who lights a cigar with a pile of money. I work very hard and save as much as I can; I've been given nothing, and earned *everything* I have. So you tell me how much of I sh*t I should give to your idiotic perceptions. You know the Mikado? One of my favorites; "...your notions, though many, are not worth a penny." And f*ck off.
"...they just plan on peeling off the sticker."
Give them some credit. First, they're gonna spend a few million on espionage, after they steal the code and a prototype, they'll trot out a completely re-designed package, Chinese internationalization; and eureka! The People's Phone.
I feel for google. On one hand their "Do no evil" mantra is merely window dressing if they in fact, do evil, which helping a repressive government surely is. On the other hand, not having a direct presence in an emerging market is incredibly harmful to a global business. In my opinion google need to at least pay lip service to the PRC but continue to out perform China's own Baidu. This is the short-coming of a repressive gov; if they continue to step on and censor superior technologies eventually people are going to shrug and circumvent the "accepted" technology in favor of the one that works.
"..."rich-boy toy" for some perceived fat cat in the US who sleeps on piles of money."
"Chas", you're an idiot.
"...once you have their MO there is also enourmous value in disrupting/corrupting their communications channels."
Ok, that's a knee-jerk reaction, and a natural enough one. Its also the typical reaction of animals. The intelligent human being sets himself aside from the animals by being smarter then them. I wouldn't disrupt their comm., I'd encourage it, help it even. Learn everything I could. Then perhaps feed it a little disinformation, wait, watch, learn more. Watch how the animals react. You could learn a lot about human nature simply by reading Frank Herbert's Dune trilogy. Especially the beginning of the first book, where Paul is given the test of the Gom Jabbar by the Reverend Mother Mohiam. An animal will always jerk its paw out of the box. A human being stands the pain, and waits for the right time and finds the right way to deal with the situation. The reaction of our politicians to these terrorist groups are little more than children playing complicated games with big, expensive toys. Running around, masturbating, playing politics, blowing our money, letting people die. I hate them. They have no clue how to deal with this shit.
...that's the United States government's fault and equates them to China?
US haters aside, it does show the complete moronic ineptitude of a huge, unwieldy bureaucracy like the US Gov., and Al Qaeda's one Ace down their collective holes; especially after the Wash. Post's story about all the spy agencies the US has set up as a reaction to 9/11 and how bloated and ineffective they are. If I were an intelligent spy hunter I'd encourage Al F*cknut to post all the information they wanted. And read. Its takes a real pack of idiots not to see the value in that.
You know what would be great? A steampunk style giant robot. Think if Transformers had been created back in the 50's, Optomus Prime might have been made partly from an Edsel.