asking people to view shit at the bottom of msn messenger is one thing, but there is a line.
No, if there were a line then "view[ing] shit at the bottom of msn messenger" would already have crossed it. The fact that you think that's acceptable means that you, like the rest of the sheeple, can be conditioned to accept this "Colonel" bullshit too.
I mean there's no much to *program* in a *presentation* right, let's be fair...
That's exactly my point! Hypercard wasn't just for presentations, with programmability hidden away as an afterthought. And that's exactly what made it good!
Well, even unencumbered music that you "squirt" gets DRM applied to it (note: possibly in violation of the music's license, if it is released e.g. under certain Creative Commons licenses), so the Zune implements at least half the idea.
Yeah, I do dual monitors with one video card, wasn't sure how easy it was to do dual monitors with two video cards.
Some people might also want to do 4 monitors on 2 video cards (or even have larger arrays of monitors). Matrox has specialized in this kind of thing for the past several years, since it can't make fast enough GPUs to compete in the gaming market.
A phone should be able to be connected to a computer via USB, for free. A phone should be able to backup and restore its data to/from a SIM or flash card, in a standard format.
Having to pay anyone -- let alone the service provider -- to simply copy your own data is ridiculous!
What's really needed is a good way to synchronize the phone with everything else. I've got a Palm PDA, RAZR cellphone, iPod, several computers (with varying OSs), and a Google account, and a Free Software solution to synchronize my PIM data between all of them does not exist. Even a proprietary solution would require daisy-chaining several kinds of disparate software, which would make the whole scheme very likely to lose data. Heck, even single-vendor stuff doesn't work properly: my Palm fails to preserve event locations when syncing with Palm Desktop in Windows (it instead puts the location in the "notes" field of the event), syncing anything with iSync fails to preserve categories, etc.
It's not possible to use two video cards at the same time, correct?
So, was the rent cheap for that rock you've been living under? 'Cause since you moved in, users have started hooking up multiple monitors to their PC, and some people even invented a little thing called SLI.
The third slot is physically x16, so it counts as being called "x16" and the blurb is correct. It's electrically x8, so the article is also correct. You can put an x16 card in it; it'll just run at x8 speed.
In addition to assuming water will be supplied, the builders assume an availability and usage rate of water...
What, you mean in the specific fixtures used and the design of kitchens and bathrooms? Even so, why should having unusable kitchens and bathrooms cause abandonment of the entire house? All they'd have to do is shut off the main valve and cap the drains (to avoid unpleasant sewer gases) and it'd be fine. The result -- having to carry in all their water -- would (presumably) be the same as what they'd have otherwise anyway.
No, the summary and article were both correct. It's just that PCIe is more complicated because the "xN" nomenclature can refer to the electrical and physical properties separately.
In other words, the slot in question is physically x16 (i.e., an x16 card will fit) but electrically x8 (i.e., a card in that slot would only get x8 bandwidth).
When the choice is cast as black-and-white as "Laptop or food/medicine?", I'd bet most people would choose the latter -- it's a no-brainer.
Are you sure it's a no-brainer? After all, which is better: having to support a large population [effectively] permanently on welfare, or creating a small population that can support themselves?
While it might be morally distasteful, the pragmatist in me says that the latter situation is actually better!
But at the same time I feel like it's a waste of money compared to better causes, like I dont know, FEEDING or MEDICINE for kids.
Why? All that would do is create an excess of useless (i.e., uneducated) people who would then just suck more and more welfare. That's a waste of money! It's much better to have educated people, who could actually figure out how to eventually support themselves, even if you end up with fewer of them because the rest starved.
Yes, I agree, this isn't the nicest way to look at it, but it is the most pragmatic.
Also, by the way, your whole argument is moot anyway because the OLPC project is focusing on "developing" countries -- those that are slightly beyond the "basic survival" phase of development. The children under consideration do have food, water, and shelter; just not cable TV and malls.
From my experience, kids who have laptops spend their day browsing the web or chatting... not learning. Every class that has computers turns out to be a waste (I've yet to see a class with computers that isn't a waste; and I taught quite a few of them).
Back when I was in elementary school, the classes that involved things like Hypercard and LOGO weren't a waste. Perhaps the problem lies not with the concept of putting computers in the classroom, but with the dumbass teachers who think MS Office is the ultimate concept of computing!
It's not unlike the good intentions that led to rebuilding of "better" houses in Sumatra for instance after the great Tsunami. Modern, western style housing just doesn't make sense there. It uses and demands much more freshwater than traditional homes and no-one can afford to run them. As a result the population has typically abandoned the new homes, which remain unoccupied, in favour of traditional homes.
How so? In particular, how exactly do Western-style homes require more fresh water?
I've seen two examples of schools in my local neighborhood bragging about how their gifted fifth-grade students were using Powerpoint to give their school reports. In one case, I saw an example of it with all sort of pictures, and the GATE teacher bragged, "and one report had a video on it!!"
Of course, I'm thinking how pathetically easy it is to put together this sort of presentation, and I was struck not by the content (as I should), but by how much the teacher valued the flash over the substance of the report.
You know what the worst part is? This is actually a regression from what we had 15 years ago when I was in 5th grade!
Back then, we had Hypercard -- like PowerPoint, except programmable. Not only could we have embedded videos in our stacks (if sufficiently fast machines had been available, anyway), but we could also program animations, link together our cards/slides in non-linear ways, and even build applications with it.
Between Hypercard, LOGO, and games like Number Munchers and Oregon Trail, computers were better used for education back then than they are today!
...just so it can run vista as by the time like the OLPC v2 comes out XP will be not sold any more.
If the XO ran Windows -- any version -- it would be worse than useless for the purpose of the OLPC. The whole point is to have software designed for education, wrapped in an operating system that's completely user-modifiable (to encourage the students to creatively hack it). This is fundamentally incompatible with Windows.
Ah, so you're saying that Apple could still have bought it even if it had previously switched to GPLv3. Yeah, that makes sense.
In that case, for the GPLv3 to be a factor, Apple would have to fear the mere existence a GPLv3 version of the code despite not being subject to it itself. This, I think, is still a possibility (albeit a weaker one), because if such a thing existed the community would pressure Apple to keep it.
No, it isn't simpler to retrain every one of your users to use a completely new OS.
Uh, the grandparent post wanted to "get rid of everything that's not open source" (emphasis added). Unless you're already using a Free operating system, it's not possible to do that without switching.
it does irk me that any time DRM is mentioned somebody always resorts to "somebody will crack it anyway"
Why? All they're doing is stating a fact! The entire concept of DRM is fatally flawed, in that it simultaneously tries to provide and withold the content from the user. It should be obvious, even if you're not an expert in cryptography, that this is fundamentally, mathematically, impossible.
At the end of the day there are cases where someone owns or has licensed content and they either desire or are legally required to make it available only under certain conditions.
You may not like it, but "at the end of the day" there are only two choices:
change the conditions so that the content can be legally released without DRM, or
don't release it at all.
All other "possibilities" are contrary to the physical reality of the universe.
The only way to be sure of these points, is to use DRM.
No, the only way to be sure of these points is nothing. Why? Because DRM is mathematically-flawed snake oil anyway!
Trying to secure content the way the BBC wants is a lost cause. It always has been. The would would be a better place if media companies would simply realize that and move on!
Slashdot Mirror
No, if there were a line then "view[ing] shit at the bottom of msn messenger" would already have crossed it. The fact that you think that's acceptable means that you, like the rest of the sheeple, can be conditioned to accept this "Colonel" bullshit too.
Ob. video!
That's exactly my point! Hypercard wasn't just for presentations, with programmability hidden away as an afterthought. And that's exactly what made it good!
Yeah, if only the screwed-up "justice" system would allow us to hold Microsoft liable for the violation of CC licenses...
Well, even unencumbered music that you "squirt" gets DRM applied to it (note: possibly in violation of the music's license, if it is released e.g. under certain Creative Commons licenses), so the Zune implements at least half the idea.
Some people might also want to do 4 monitors on 2 video cards (or even have larger arrays of monitors). Matrox has specialized in this kind of thing for the past several years, since it can't make fast enough GPUs to compete in the gaming market.
A phone should be able to be connected to a computer via USB, for free. A phone should be able to backup and restore its data to/from a SIM or flash card, in a standard format.
Having to pay anyone -- let alone the service provider -- to simply copy your own data is ridiculous!
What's really needed is a good way to synchronize the phone with everything else. I've got a Palm PDA, RAZR cellphone, iPod, several computers (with varying OSs), and a Google account, and a Free Software solution to synchronize my PIM data between all of them does not exist. Even a proprietary solution would require daisy-chaining several kinds of disparate software, which would make the whole scheme very likely to lose data. Heck, even single-vendor stuff doesn't work properly: my Palm fails to preserve event locations when syncing with Palm Desktop in Windows (it instead puts the location in the "notes" field of the event), syncing anything with iSync fails to preserve categories, etc.
So, was the rent cheap for that rock you've been living under? 'Cause since you moved in, users have started hooking up multiple monitors to their PC, and some people even invented a little thing called SLI.
The third slot is physically x16, so it counts as being called "x16" and the blurb is correct. It's electrically x8, so the article is also correct. You can put an x16 card in it; it'll just run at x8 speed.
Hint: My screen name is Mr. Chaotica. ; )
What, you mean in the specific fixtures used and the design of kitchens and bathrooms? Even so, why should having unusable kitchens and bathrooms cause abandonment of the entire house? All they'd have to do is shut off the main valve and cap the drains (to avoid unpleasant sewer gases) and it'd be fine. The result -- having to carry in all their water -- would (presumably) be the same as what they'd have otherwise anyway.
No. Blendtec doesn't make a big enough blender to fit it in. Instead, the proper question to ask is "Will it chip ?"
No, the summary and article were both correct. It's just that PCIe is more complicated because the "xN" nomenclature can refer to the electrical and physical properties separately.
In other words, the slot in question is physically x16 (i.e., an x16 card will fit) but electrically x8 (i.e., a card in that slot would only get x8 bandwidth).
Are you sure it's a no-brainer? After all, which is better: having to support a large population [effectively] permanently on welfare, or creating a small population that can support themselves?
While it might be morally distasteful, the pragmatist in me says that the latter situation is actually better!
Why? All that would do is create an excess of useless (i.e., uneducated) people who would then just suck more and more welfare. That's a waste of money! It's much better to have educated people, who could actually figure out how to eventually support themselves, even if you end up with fewer of them because the rest starved.
Yes, I agree, this isn't the nicest way to look at it, but it is the most pragmatic.
Also, by the way, your whole argument is moot anyway because the OLPC project is focusing on "developing" countries -- those that are slightly beyond the "basic survival" phase of development. The children under consideration do have food, water, and shelter; just not cable TV and malls.
Back when I was in elementary school, the classes that involved things like Hypercard and LOGO weren't a waste. Perhaps the problem lies not with the concept of putting computers in the classroom, but with the dumbass teachers who think MS Office is the ultimate concept of computing!
How so? In particular, how exactly do Western-style homes require more fresh water?
Yeah, imagine a whole generation of kids growing up without the unhealthy guilt our prudish society indoctrinated into us!
Your grade turned into a search algorithm?
You know what the worst part is? This is actually a regression from what we had 15 years ago when I was in 5th grade!
Back then, we had Hypercard -- like PowerPoint, except programmable. Not only could we have embedded videos in our stacks (if sufficiently fast machines had been available, anyway), but we could also program animations, link together our cards/slides in non-linear ways, and even build applications with it.
Between Hypercard, LOGO, and games like Number Munchers and Oregon Trail, computers were better used for education back then than they are today!
If the XO ran Windows -- any version -- it would be worse than useless for the purpose of the OLPC. The whole point is to have software designed for education, wrapped in an operating system that's completely user-modifiable (to encourage the students to creatively hack it). This is fundamentally incompatible with Windows.
Ah, so you're saying that Apple could still have bought it even if it had previously switched to GPLv3. Yeah, that makes sense.
In that case, for the GPLv3 to be a factor, Apple would have to fear the mere existence a GPLv3 version of the code despite not being subject to it itself. This, I think, is still a possibility (albeit a weaker one), because if such a thing existed the community would pressure Apple to keep it.
Uh, the grandparent post wanted to "get rid of everything that's not open source" (emphasis added). Unless you're already using a Free operating system, it's not possible to do that without switching.
Why? All they're doing is stating a fact! The entire concept of DRM is fatally flawed, in that it simultaneously tries to provide and withold the content from the user. It should be obvious, even if you're not an expert in cryptography, that this is fundamentally, mathematically, impossible.
You may not like it, but "at the end of the day" there are only two choices:
All other "possibilities" are contrary to the physical reality of the universe.
No, the only way to be sure of these points is nothing. Why? Because DRM is mathematically-flawed snake oil anyway!
Trying to secure content the way the BBC wants is a lost cause. It always has been. The would would be a better place if media companies would simply realize that and move on!