Well, about your view on capitalism and the Common Good, that's exactly what I've understood at first:) But with your explanations I came to realize that maybe you see this economic system as a natural one, leaving morals and ethics aside to care more about pragmatics. In fact I think that's the opinion of most people in the West.
See, I'm that kind of guy who thinks that every social interaction has political causes and consequences. I've come to this conclusion since my definition of "politics" is the conjunction of the social and the philosophical : people interacting through ideas. So from this viewpoint, of course the economical model I think is most suited for the world will reflect ethical and moral considerations. After all, human relations and institutions - or formalized relations - come and go sooner or later, so I guess this means each of us has to stand for what he believes in, make himself heard and start organizing to see these changes come true. I think that's what has to be done, revolutionaries or not.
As for your questions concerning left anarchism, well first I'm glad to see some interest:) The questions you are addressing are very interesting. I could start some large exposé of my positions and theories as an anarchist but I think a better way for you to introduce yourself to some left anarchism answers to these questions is to read section A.2.14-19 of the Anarchist FAQ I've already linked in a previous post. The answers there are pretty straight-forward and complete ; of course this FAQ is not some Party line but really is a very decent and broad introduction to the left anarchism scene. Feel free to post back or to e-mail me if you want to discuss it further outside of Slashdot, I'd be pleased:)
I think there's a deep misunderstanding here. I'm not some leftist prone to Communism even though I point problems in capitalism. I consider Communism as State Capitalism ; both shares many problems, and have many problems of their own.
However, you seem to contradict yourself when you write a few sentences apart that Common Good results from capitalism, and that an economic system can't be concerned with morals and ethics. Maybe I'm missing something here ? I do think the way economy is organized can and should work for the Common Good - hence morally and ethically - though production as such can't be nothing else but a tool for human motives.
A economic and political system I'm particularly interested in is anarcho-syndicalism, as it incorporates free will as well as goodwill. Of course it requires a mass mindset that won't happen tomorrow, but since I don't think there's a human essence, maybe people will get someday to be able to behave freely and responsably at the same time without bosses and cops taking decisions for them. That's an utopia - as any ideology in its pure form - but steps can nonetheless be made toward such a society, like it happened for capitalism. If you wish to discuss further about left anarchism, I suggest you first read a little from the Anarchist FAQ at http://www.infoshop.org/faq/ , especially sections A through D ; there's a LOT of stuff, so I recommend you look at the TOC of the sections first:)
Oh by the way, I already took 3 classes in economics, I'm not throwing empty slogans here...
Never said Apple was a great company mate, I was just talking about usability here:) I do acknowledge Apple's lock-in problems too, don't worry.
I do not tend to think in good-bad, white-black contrasts : I do not think that Microsoft is The Devil and that a nuke on Redmond would make everlasting universal love spring out, but their monopolistic games are definitely quite a nuisance ; I'm not a zealot. It's not a matter of product quality to me as a matter of positioning in the IT world ; as pioneers Microsoft had the advantage of having much much less competition than there is now. I know it was a matter of innovation, but innovation at that time was much less threatened by other nuisances like silly patents and other DMCA-like laws... Comparing an IT startup in the mid-70s to one started in 2004 is really comparing apples to oranges.
For me this issue is beyond Good and Evil, it's a matter of power leverage. Microsoft is abusing its position as #1 software vendor all over the world and it's a problem that needs to be addressed and solved ASAP.
Don't you recognize Microsoft exerts some kind of monopoly in many software markets ( OS, office suite, media player, browser, etc. ) right now ? Of course people can write better software - hell, many do:) - but having a better product doesn't mean the top rank in market share because many other variables have to be taken into account, one of the most important being the monetary assets of the companies involved, another being the political power corporations can gain to twist societal tendancies into their favor. Microsoft have massive monetary and political power to help them stay on top, which isn't fair for any startup company. I'm not saying it's impossible to topple Microsoft as a monopoly by having better products alone, but the defacto-monopoly right now is definitely not a good thing for competition, and hence for consumers.
<rant> We do not live in a classic-capitalism utopia where companies are ethical and let competition strive ; we live in a world where giant corporations enjoy being on top to gain huge piles of money, namely because of the underlying "greed" capitalism is based on. I've always found strange that on one hand, capitalists explain their position with a greed-as-human-nature argument while on the other hand assuming that this greed will be refrained for some Common Good. Greed has never been a matter of common good, it's about gaining and preserving power. Capitalism is not concerned with morals and ethics, and that's why it cannot stand alone as a worldview. So defending Microsoft on a strictly economical dimension isn't very much relevant at all. </rant>
And actually I think MacOS X surpasses WinXP hands down on usability, as long as you're not glued up in WinLogics as a user.
The Knoppix Installer never gave me the chance to properly configure some important stuff like XFree86 options ( namely xvrefresh ). I'd be running Knoppix locally right now if it wasn't of some important details like that ; just installed Mandrake 10, works like a charm.
P.S. Don't bother telling me how to set xvrefresh : I've found a way to do it in the end.
I've always wondered why copyrights conglomerates like the RIAA and the MPAA put millions into attacking the most popular network ( once Napster, now Kazaa ) ; people will just switch to other networks if they can't go to Kazaa. Gnutella ? OpenFT ? BitTorrent ? Name it.
Information wants to be free, suckas. Get it into your head.
I do realize that Debian tries really hard to comply with the GPL, and in fact I think that's a Good Thing(tm). But I also think there should be an easy way to access such vital drivers directly from Debian even though they would not manage these repositories themselves, be they sources or binaries. Another user has replied to my post with a script I may use to deal with my Nvidia situation, and that's the kind of add-ons I'd like ( in order to be able to USE my PC, you know ), but I understand the GPL implications concerned too. Waiting for some Free Hardware...;)
I've never written that LINUX isn't ready for the desktop, I've written that DEBIAN wasn't. Xandros, Lindows, Mandrake, they're able to handle the desktop market big time, while Debian desperately needs an easy installer.
The difference between servers and desktops ? Server installations target IT people, while desktop installations must be usable by Joe Sixpack. When I wrote that Debian isn't ready for the desktop, I meant it wasn't easy enough for the masses to use it, and I think it's mainly because of installations hassles ; your 4-year experience isn't a relevant argument, just like saying "Windows 98 is safe, it never crashed here" isn't either. Common people are very much more dependant on features like hardware autodetection than IT people, because hardware installation involves informations and techniques most people don't know about. I just can't believe you're comparing the Windows installation with Debian's... Many distros have great installers, but Debian has one of the worst from the easiness perspective ; I know there have been good reasons for this ( e.g. many architectures to support ) but I think it's time to set the installer as a priority for Debian. In fact, I think the Debian team recognizes this right now and are working toward this goal ; it ought to be done, since many Debian-based distros like Knoppix and Libranet now have way more appeal because they just install way easier.
I've just read a little bit of Morphix's FAQ and the concept seems very interesting. I'll read more about this after work, but thanks a lot mate:)
Thanks to everyone who answered me in fact. Now I have a lot of interesting alternatives to evaluate, but I'll definitely be getting what I wanted so that's great news. Here's a proof that sound discussion is possible on/.;)
That's interesting stuff... If you check the other answers above, a Knoppix HD install with a little tweaking would be a good idea too. Thanks for the tip, it might be quite useful if the Knoppix alternative fails for whatever reason.
I've heard rumours about Knoppix install being shaky but the way you wrote it, that seems quite easy... I didn't check too much into this until now because I thought KDE was the only choice ( I've hence considered using Gnoppix instead ) but obviously it ain't a problem at all with your technique. The Nvidia drivers script is really great news for me too... Eh, maybe I should have looked into all this more seriously after all:P Anyway, thanks a lot mate and welcome to my Friends list, you've made my day:)
Indeed, I've tried Libranet and at first I really loved it. But then I've tried to apt-get dist-upgrade and realized the packages I was getting were very old. So I've tried to edit sources.list to get them straight from the most recent version of Debian at that time, but somehow all this mangling messed up the system so badly I've had to format. Maybe I don't understand some basic distro upgrade principle yet...
I know Libranet freely releases a couple of months after their commercial release ; if there is a way to keep my packages current in the long term without having to buy Libranet releases all the time it'd be quite allright for me. Eh, Libranet is Canadian too so that's fine by me:) Maybe I should look at Knoppix too, but maybe it has the same upgrade problems once it's installed... Anyways, thanks for your tip:)
My plan right now is to install Mandrake 10.0 which will be released in the next couple of days, and then wait until Debian has decent hardware autodetection during install to switch. See, I just HATE the download-old-Nvidia-drivers-on-w3m-and-somehow-pat ch-your-system step I always have to do right now, and configuring the sound system can be a mess too. Mandrake ( like Knoppix and many other distros ) autodetects my hardware and installs the drivers I need without a scratch. THIS AND THIS ALONE is why, according to me, Debian is not ready for the desktop : decent overall hardware autodetection.
What I'd like to know is, would the debtakeover tool enable me to completely convert a Mandrake box into a Debian box while keeping my hardware settings intact ? If so, that'd be fantastic, even though this ought to be a buggy ride because the tool is still beta...
P.S. I'm somewhat of a Debian newbie and I know so, you don't have to confirm...
At least I can blame Google translating services for this one, but maybe I should have just written on what I really know about... I mean, my message seems to have more errors than the one I was nit-picking on, that's some pretty humbling experience;)
IAAFC*, and I know that "nu" isn't slang at all in French, it's the most commonly used word translating "naked" whatever the context, be it pr0n or medecine seminars. Of course, on the Net right now, I think pr0n is bound to dominate.nu, but some ppl like naturalist painters might enjoy a ".naked":)
For the record, "neu" in German means "again" too. In fact, I suppose there are a lot of languages for which this sound means something as is, so Niue could have good business if they choose to remain independant and have Net facilities. Malaysia (.fm ) did sold many domain names to foreigners, for obvious reasons.
Trolls and jokes aside, today would be a good occasion for everyone in here to recognize what kind of changes and good ideas the Free Software movement - and then the Open Source movement, too - brought. However obtuse RMS can be nowadays about some stuff ( I mostly agree with him but he seems to diminish freedom of choice too much ), you just have to recognize the vision and hard work this man did ; here's one hell of a dedicated person, and rightly so. That's the kind of passion that enabled Linus Torvalds to follow through as well, giving FLOSS the enormous possibilities it has today and permitting everyone to develop together better tools for a better tomorrow.
Realize that open source software is the way of the future ; anything else would be an intolerable regression. The fight for not letting that happen really started 20 years ago ; my deepest respect to Richard Matthew Stallman. ( I won't care for stupid replies. )
The fusion plant they are talking about will be the ITER, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, so it's designed to make fusion power a reliable reality. Check out ITER's web page for more info on the project.
Slashdot Mirror
10 PRINT "SUE !"
20 GOTO 20
Well, about your view on capitalism and the Common Good, that's exactly what I've understood at first :) But with your explanations I came to realize that maybe you see this economic system as a natural one, leaving morals and ethics aside to care more about pragmatics. In fact I think that's the opinion of most people in the West.
:) The questions you are addressing are very interesting. I could start some large exposé of my positions and theories as an anarchist but I think a better way for you to introduce yourself to some left anarchism answers to these questions is to read section A.2.14-19 of the Anarchist FAQ I've already linked in a previous post. The answers there are pretty straight-forward and complete ; of course this FAQ is not some Party line but really is a very decent and broad introduction to the left anarchism scene. Feel free to post back or to e-mail me if you want to discuss it further outside of Slashdot, I'd be pleased :)
See, I'm that kind of guy who thinks that every social interaction has political causes and consequences. I've come to this conclusion since my definition of "politics" is the conjunction of the social and the philosophical : people interacting through ideas. So from this viewpoint, of course the economical model I think is most suited for the world will reflect ethical and moral considerations. After all, human relations and institutions - or formalized relations - come and go sooner or later, so I guess this means each of us has to stand for what he believes in, make himself heard and start organizing to see these changes come true. I think that's what has to be done, revolutionaries or not.
As for your questions concerning left anarchism, well first I'm glad to see some interest
I think there's a deep misunderstanding here. I'm not some leftist prone to Communism even though I point problems in capitalism. I consider Communism as State Capitalism ; both shares many problems, and have many problems of their own.
:)
However, you seem to contradict yourself when you write a few sentences apart that Common Good results from capitalism, and that an economic system can't be concerned with morals and ethics. Maybe I'm missing something here ? I do think the way economy is organized can and should work for the Common Good - hence morally and ethically - though production as such can't be nothing else but a tool for human motives.
A economic and political system I'm particularly interested in is anarcho-syndicalism, as it incorporates free will as well as goodwill. Of course it requires a mass mindset that won't happen tomorrow, but since I don't think there's a human essence, maybe people will get someday to be able to behave freely and responsably at the same time without bosses and cops taking decisions for them. That's an utopia - as any ideology in its pure form - but steps can nonetheless be made toward such a society, like it happened for capitalism. If you wish to discuss further about left anarchism, I suggest you first read a little from the Anarchist FAQ at http://www.infoshop.org/faq/ , especially sections A through D ; there's a LOT of stuff, so I recommend you look at the TOC of the sections first
Oh by the way, I already took 3 classes in economics, I'm not throwing empty slogans here...
Never said Apple was a great company mate, I was just talking about usability here :) I do acknowledge Apple's lock-in problems too, don't worry.
I do not tend to think in good-bad, white-black contrasts : I do not think that Microsoft is The Devil and that a nuke on Redmond would make everlasting universal love spring out, but their monopolistic games are definitely quite a nuisance ; I'm not a zealot. It's not a matter of product quality to me as a matter of positioning in the IT world ; as pioneers Microsoft had the advantage of having much much less competition than there is now. I know it was a matter of innovation, but innovation at that time was much less threatened by other nuisances like silly patents and other DMCA-like laws... Comparing an IT startup in the mid-70s to one started in 2004 is really comparing apples to oranges.
For me this issue is beyond Good and Evil, it's a matter of power leverage. Microsoft is abusing its position as #1 software vendor all over the world and it's a problem that needs to be addressed and solved ASAP.
Don't you recognize Microsoft exerts some kind of monopoly in many software markets ( OS, office suite, media player, browser, etc. ) right now ? Of course people can write better software - hell, many do :) - but having a better product doesn't mean the top rank in market share because many other variables have to be taken into account, one of the most important being the monetary assets of the companies involved, another being the political power corporations can gain to twist societal tendancies into their favor. Microsoft have massive monetary and political power to help them stay on top, which isn't fair for any startup company. I'm not saying it's impossible to topple Microsoft as a monopoly by having better products alone, but the defacto-monopoly right now is definitely not a good thing for competition, and hence for consumers.
<rant>
We do not live in a classic-capitalism utopia where companies are ethical and let competition strive ; we live in a world where giant corporations enjoy being on top to gain huge piles of money, namely because of the underlying "greed" capitalism is based on. I've always found strange that on one hand, capitalists explain their position with a greed-as-human-nature argument while on the other hand assuming that this greed will be refrained for some Common Good. Greed has never been a matter of common good, it's about gaining and preserving power. Capitalism is not concerned with morals and ethics, and that's why it cannot stand alone as a worldview. So defending Microsoft on a strictly economical dimension isn't very much relevant at all.
</rant>
And actually I think MacOS X surpasses WinXP hands down on usability, as long as you're not glued up in WinLogics as a user.
The story in the London Mirror. Amnesty International, like a whole bunch of human rights groups, is concerned about Guantanamo too.
P.S. I'm not the one who's written your parent's offtopic post.
I just believe that for everything there is a formula and that there's a kinda metaformula, which describes EVERYTHING in this world.
:)
Sounds fair alright. But tell me, how could such "metaformula" be else than from some metametaformula ? Etc. etc. etc.
These Sisyphean endeavours are much fun, but peeps have to learn when to stop when determinism's the issue
The Knoppix Installer never gave me the chance to properly configure some important stuff like XFree86 options ( namely xvrefresh ). I'd be running Knoppix locally right now if it wasn't of some important details like that ; just installed Mandrake 10, works like a charm.
P.S. Don't bother telling me how to set xvrefresh : I've found a way to do it in the end.
I've always wondered why copyrights conglomerates like the RIAA and the MPAA put millions into attacking the most popular network ( once Napster, now Kazaa ) ; people will just switch to other networks if they can't go to Kazaa. Gnutella ? OpenFT ? BitTorrent ? Name it.
Information wants to be free, suckas. Get it into your head.
I do realize that Debian tries really hard to comply with the GPL, and in fact I think that's a Good Thing(tm). But I also think there should be an easy way to access such vital drivers directly from Debian even though they would not manage these repositories themselves, be they sources or binaries. Another user has replied to my post with a script I may use to deal with my Nvidia situation, and that's the kind of add-ons I'd like ( in order to be able to USE my PC, you know ), but I understand the GPL implications concerned too. Waiting for some Free Hardware... ;)
I've never written that LINUX isn't ready for the desktop, I've written that DEBIAN wasn't. Xandros, Lindows, Mandrake, they're able to handle the desktop market big time, while Debian desperately needs an easy installer.
The difference between servers and desktops ? Server installations target IT people, while desktop installations must be usable by Joe Sixpack. When I wrote that Debian isn't ready for the desktop, I meant it wasn't easy enough for the masses to use it, and I think it's mainly because of installations hassles ; your 4-year experience isn't a relevant argument, just like saying "Windows 98 is safe, it never crashed here" isn't either. Common people are very much more dependant on features like hardware autodetection than IT people, because hardware installation involves informations and techniques most people don't know about. I just can't believe you're comparing the Windows installation with Debian's... Many distros have great installers, but Debian has one of the worst from the easiness perspective ; I know there have been good reasons for this ( e.g. many architectures to support ) but I think it's time to set the installer as a priority for Debian. In fact, I think the Debian team recognizes this right now and are working toward this goal ; it ought to be done, since many Debian-based distros like Knoppix and Libranet now have way more appeal because they just install way easier.
I've just read a little bit of Morphix's FAQ and the concept seems very interesting. I'll read more about this after work, but thanks a lot mate :)
/. ;)
Thanks to everyone who answered me in fact. Now I have a lot of interesting alternatives to evaluate, but I'll definitely be getting what I wanted so that's great news. Here's a proof that sound discussion is possible on
That's interesting stuff... If you check the other answers above, a Knoppix HD install with a little tweaking would be a good idea too. Thanks for the tip, it might be quite useful if the Knoppix alternative fails for whatever reason.
I've heard rumours about Knoppix install being shaky but the way you wrote it, that seems quite easy... I didn't check too much into this until now because I thought KDE was the only choice ( I've hence considered using Gnoppix instead ) but obviously it ain't a problem at all with your technique. The Nvidia drivers script is really great news for me too... Eh, maybe I should have looked into all this more seriously after all :P Anyway, thanks a lot mate and welcome to my Friends list, you've made my day :)
Indeed, I've tried Libranet and at first I really loved it. But then I've tried to apt-get dist-upgrade and realized the packages I was getting were very old. So I've tried to edit sources.list to get them straight from the most recent version of Debian at that time, but somehow all this mangling messed up the system so badly I've had to format. Maybe I don't understand some basic distro upgrade principle yet...
:) Maybe I should look at Knoppix too, but maybe it has the same upgrade problems once it's installed... Anyways, thanks for your tip :)
I know Libranet freely releases a couple of months after their commercial release ; if there is a way to keep my packages current in the long term without having to buy Libranet releases all the time it'd be quite allright for me. Eh, Libranet is Canadian too so that's fine by me
Here's a test case for you Debian clinicians :)
t ch-your-system step I always have to do right now, and configuring the sound system can be a mess too. Mandrake ( like Knoppix and many other distros ) autodetects my hardware and installs the drivers I need without a scratch. THIS AND THIS ALONE is why, according to me, Debian is not ready for the desktop : decent overall hardware autodetection.
My plan right now is to install Mandrake 10.0 which will be released in the next couple of days, and then wait until Debian has decent hardware autodetection during install to switch. See, I just HATE the download-old-Nvidia-drivers-on-w3m-and-somehow-pa
What I'd like to know is, would the debtakeover tool enable me to completely convert a Mandrake box into a Debian box while keeping my hardware settings intact ? If so, that'd be fantastic, even though this ought to be a buggy ride because the tool is still beta...
P.S. I'm somewhat of a Debian newbie and I know so, you don't have to confirm...
Does anyone know what happen with the 30 days given to SCO to produce evidence that ended... last week ? What's going on here ?
No, it means "new"
;)
At least I can blame Google translating services for this one, but maybe I should have just written on what I really know about... I mean, my message seems to have more errors than the one I was nit-picking on, that's some pretty humbling experience
IAAFC*, and I know that "nu" isn't slang at all in French, it's the most commonly used word translating "naked" whatever the context, be it pr0n or medecine seminars. Of course, on the Net right now, I think pr0n is bound to dominate .nu, but some ppl like naturalist painters might enjoy a ".naked" :)
.fm ) did sold many domain names to foreigners, for obvious reasons.
For the record, "neu" in German means "again" too. In fact, I suppose there are a lot of languages for which this sound means something as is, so Niue could have good business if they choose to remain independant and have Net facilities. Malaysia (
*I am a French Canadian
I wonder if they're looking into giant robot anteaters as an alternative to costly bunker-buster bombs?
No, they're not.
I've heard it will be available on Unique-based systems soon, stay tuned.
You sir are right on the spot.
Trolls and jokes aside, today would be a good occasion for everyone in here to recognize what kind of changes and good ideas the Free Software movement - and then the Open Source movement, too - brought. However obtuse RMS can be nowadays about some stuff ( I mostly agree with him but he seems to diminish freedom of choice too much ), you just have to recognize the vision and hard work this man did ; here's one hell of a dedicated person, and rightly so. That's the kind of passion that enabled Linus Torvalds to follow through as well, giving FLOSS the enormous possibilities it has today and permitting everyone to develop together better tools for a better tomorrow.
Realize that open source software is the way of the future ; anything else would be an intolerable regression. The fight for not letting that happen really started 20 years ago ; my deepest respect to Richard Matthew Stallman. ( I won't care for stupid replies. )
The fusion plant they are talking about will be the ITER, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, so it's designed to make fusion power a reliable reality. Check out ITER's web page for more info on the project.
Thank you very much.
There's indeed a big risk of electrocution for the ocean here. Imagine the mass extinctions such an accident could cause ! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH !