It's really annoying to see people with decently powerful hardware complaining about compile times. I guess their versions of *nix don't have the ability to set priorities with "nice".
If you hadn't included your last sentenance, then you would have had a valid point and been informative. Unfortunately, now, it's sounds just like one big put down.
Actually, it's just the install CD that is gnome only. Once installed, you can use apt to get and install KDE, XFCE, IceWm or whatever your fancy would be.
I've looked into Ubuntu and several other single CD distros, because I'm tired of having to download and burn four or five CDs to install. I see real advantage to the single CD with a minimal but functional system and then apt-getting the "extra" stuff I need.
From that perspective, Ubuntu succeeds very nicely.
Most likely, the researcher didn't need social security numbers, but the state office that commissioned the research uses them to track the people, so they are the official ID numbers of the individuals. What I find interesting is that the State gave them names and addresses tied to the SSNs, not that they gave them the SSNs.
Also, is anyone sure they are SSNs? If the state switched drivers license numbers to SSNs like many states have, then they didn't disclose SSNs but drivers license numbers.
Actually, it's not illegal for someone to request your social security number. It is illegal for the Social Security Administration to give out any information about a person, including their name, therefore making a social security number worthless for verifying who someone is.
The only thing the SSN guarantees is that it is a unique ID number.
Re:Joe Sixpack is looking for "useful life"
on
Less Might Be More
·
· Score: 1
Joe doesn't use that "sucker" until it dies, he uses it until he needs (or thinks he needs) the next version of Windows or Office and his computer doesn't meet the specs anymore. This isn't a slam against Microsoft, btw, it applies to any software vendor.
What I can't understand is why the PC I bought around the time I got my PS2 can't run the latest games, but my PS2 does? It's amazing that even PCs that were purchased just six months ago don't meet the specs of the most recently released games. Why do the newest PC games need so much memory and high end video cards? Halo2 is about to be released for the XBox and the XBox has significantly lower specs than the current crop of PCs.
People can't help OS upgrades requiring more horsepower. In the home market, though, it's not the OS that seems to drive the upgrade cycle, but the games. The best long term gaming investment someone can make to preserve their PC is a standalone game console!
Hah! I can beat that! We just, this past July, replaced my wife's 1992 Mac Performa 5400! It still worked fine, but unfortunately, her printer didn't. Do you know how hard it is to find an inexpensive printer for the old Mac serial port?
Instead of shelling out extra bucks for a printer with features she didn't need, we put that money towards a new G4 iBook. It works fantastic and we hope it lasts 12 years like the 5400 did.
Dcnjoe60
Macs, they just keep working and working and working... (with apologies to the Energizer bunny)
2) If I do pay for my operating system, I get good support. I haven`t ever recieved even half ass support for windows except something along the lines of `just try rebooting and lets make sure you didn`t go into setup and change something`
You left out the second most heard support suggestion--"reinstall windows".
Everytime there is a a/. article about Yoper, you post the same basic message. I don't know who did what to hurt you, but don't you think it's time to grow up and move on?
Are you sure they have a constitutional right to free speech? I know that individuals do, the constitution says so, but I didn't think that business did. If they do, then how does the FCC and FTC regulate advertising and product claims?
While it is true that they have a right to free speech, as you point out, there are limitations as to how that right can be exercised.
My constitutional right to free speech does not permit me to enter your house without permission to force you to listen. At best, that's called trespass. At worst, it's breaking and entering. Either way, the courts say such behaviour is unlawful.
Therefore, my proposal is that anyone who is affected by them, sue them for trespass and/or breaking and entering, as they have entered private property, my house, to excercise their free speech. To proof their trespass or breaking and entry, one just needs to look at the computer. Free speech does not cover physically altering tangible property (the image of the hard drive).
So, yes, they have the right to free speech. They just don't have the right to come into my home to exercise it.
Heck, why go after the "Anonymous Coward?" There are much bigger stakes here. Microsoft is the one who designed Windows to allow you to hold down the shift key to stop auto-play. So, they are the ones who are providing the method to circumvent the DRM that violates the DMCA.
Anonymous Coward is a small potato. BMI should go after Microsoft.
DcnJoe60
ps the above comment is copyrighted. Anyone printing it off without permission is violating the DMCA, please send your name and computer and printer manufacturer to my lawyers.
Mandrake cooker, the development version of Mandrake has switched to GCCC 3.4.1, not the release versions. Since the next release of Community and Official are months away, it makes sense for Mandrake to start using the new GCC. By the time the next Mandrake Community is released, GCC 3.4.1 will be officially stable.
So what will these new longhorn computers go for? Say, something like $8,000, since people already pay $3,000 for plasma tvs, and something as souped up as these machines aren't going to have you're current crop of crt or lcd monitors.
Now, let's assume, that because of the price, they only sell 1,000,000. $8,000 times 1,000,000 equals $8,000,000,000!
You could feed a lot of hungry people in the world for 8 billion dollars.
Not quite. IBM lost a big lawsuit in the 60s over bundling hardware and software with their mainframes. The gist of the finding was that since IBM controlled the hardware, their bundling of the OS and other software kept fair competition out (Amdahl, I think). The courts split them in to two divisions - one for hardware, one for software and forced them to quit bundling.
God, I hate replying to my own posts, but I just did a google search on Janus and the third hit was for "The Society of Janus," which is a San Francisco based BDSM education/support group. Maybe that's who they licensed the name from. It would at least be more fitting for what they are trying to do.
I wonder if Microsoft licensed the name Janus from Janus Capital Group (you know the Janus investment funds people).
It might say a lot as to how sincere Microsoft is about abusing other people's rights.
I mean, I'm sure Janus wouldn't want anybody to get confused that Janus Capital Group and Microsoft Janus. Like all of those people confusted between Microsoft Windows and Lindows (other than the judge, there were how many?)!
The courts have already decided that it is legal to copy music off the airwaves. Assuming these "new" Janus devices will have a headphone jack (kind of hard to go jogging and listen to music without it), just plug one of those FM broadcast things like an iRock into the headphone jack.
At that point, all you need do is record to your tape deck or computer the captured broadcast signal. I may take a little longer and the quality may not be exactly the same (but then again, neither are MP3s), but that's a small price to pay.
Now some may argue (incorrectly) that you don't have the right to broadcast the music without a license, but the FCC says you can on low power devices. So you have the FCC saying you can broadcast and the courts saying you can record the broadcast. Case closed.
If the oil companies, for no particular reason, suddenly raise the price of gas to $5/gallon and I sell it to you at $4.95 instead, does that mean I'm not gouging you because I'm the cheapest?
Let's say we weren't talking pennies here, but instead it was $100 per decoder and $200 per encoder. Would they still not be gouging because they were the cheapest (assuming the others were more).
The relationship of price to others in the market doesn't define what gouging is. It's the relationship of price to what is the worth of the product.
The codecs are given away with every copy of Windows. That's fine, it's their product, they can do with what they want. But, one has to assume that they've recovered their development costs on the codecs a long time ago, so what exactly are they licensing?
Besides, you keep claiming that these codecs are open standards and yet, if someone tries to develop a clean room version of one of them, they are taken to court (otherwise, I should be able to decode foreign dvds without worry, right?)
Back to the original topic, if Microsoft is charging for their implimentation of the open standard, then fine, that is their right. If they are charging for anyone's implimentation, then yes they are gouging.
Just think if everytime you bought a car, you had to pay a license fee to Ford (or pick your favorite auto manufacture) for the right to have a steering wheel on the correct side of the vehicle for your country. In essence, that is what Microsoft is doing with their licensing fee of a supposedly open standard. Wouldn't you call that gouging.
And just in case you still can't see it as gouging, I'll sell you the codecs for $63, making me cheaper than Turbolinux. Ah, heck, I'm a nice guy, I'll do it for $59.99.
While I agree in general with your post, the fact that Microsoft charges everyone the same price for something doesn't mean that they still aren't gouging people on the price.
If the street price of Windows XP is $99, and just the codecs for Windows Media Player cost $64, does that mean a stripped down version of Windows XP, without the media player would only be $35?
Seems like the license for those codecs are quite expensive compared to the cost of XP itself.
Hey, I even have the gist of the commercial/ad for you. Show a couple of people standing in an unemployment line with a tag somethink like, "So, why did you get laid off?"
The next guy/gal responds with something like "I heard it was because the company needed to cut expenses so they could afford the latest upgrade to Microsoft Office."
Then switch to "OpenOffice.org -- free to upgrade, free to use."
Chapter 11, or whatever the French version is called, is there precisly to keep "creative accounting" from happening. Once declared, the courts oversee all of the accounting practices. That guarantee of sound numbers (whether good or bad) is what creditors and investors rely on.
Remember that Mandrake is still under the court's protection. They can't publish results without the court's approval and verification of the results.
Actually, dual-booting wouldn't come into the picture, because to dual boot linux and windows, you would already have a copy of windows, which would mean you have a license from Microsoft to use FAT.
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It's really annoying to see people with decently powerful hardware complaining about compile times. I guess their versions of *nix don't have the ability to set priorities with "nice".
If you hadn't included your last sentenance, then you would have had a valid point and been informative. Unfortunately, now, it's sounds just like one big put down.
Actually, it's just the install CD that is gnome only. Once installed, you can use apt to get and install KDE, XFCE, IceWm or whatever your fancy would be.
I've looked into Ubuntu and several other single CD distros, because I'm tired of having to download and burn four or five CDs to install. I see real advantage to the single CD with a minimal but functional system and then apt-getting the "extra" stuff I need.
From that perspective, Ubuntu succeeds very nicely.
Most likely, the researcher didn't need social security numbers, but the state office that commissioned the research uses them to track the people, so they are the official ID numbers of the individuals. What I find interesting is that the State gave them names and addresses tied to the SSNs, not that they gave them the SSNs.
Also, is anyone sure they are SSNs? If the state switched drivers license numbers to SSNs like many states have, then they didn't disclose SSNs but drivers license numbers.
Actually, it's not illegal for someone to request your social security number. It is illegal for the Social Security Administration to give out any information about a person, including their name, therefore making a social security number worthless for verifying who someone is.
The only thing the SSN guarantees is that it is a unique ID number.
Joe doesn't use that "sucker" until it dies, he uses it until he needs (or thinks he needs) the next version of Windows or Office and his computer doesn't meet the specs anymore. This isn't a slam against Microsoft, btw, it applies to any software vendor.
What I can't understand is why the PC I bought around the time I got my PS2 can't run the latest games, but my PS2 does? It's amazing that even PCs that were purchased just six months ago don't meet the specs of the most recently released games. Why do the newest PC games need so much memory and high end video cards? Halo2 is about to be released for the XBox and the XBox has significantly lower specs than the current crop of PCs.
People can't help OS upgrades requiring more horsepower. In the home market, though, it's not the OS that seems to drive the upgrade cycle, but the games. The best long term gaming investment someone can make to preserve their PC is a standalone game console!
Hah! I can beat that! We just, this past July, replaced my wife's 1992 Mac Performa 5400! It still worked fine, but unfortunately, her printer didn't. Do you know how hard it is to find an inexpensive printer for the old Mac serial port?
Instead of shelling out extra bucks for a printer with features she didn't need, we put that money towards a new G4 iBook. It works fantastic and we hope it lasts 12 years like the 5400 did.
Dcnjoe60
Macs, they just keep working and working and working... (with apologies to the Energizer bunny)
2) If I do pay for my operating system, I get good support. I haven`t ever recieved even half ass support for windows except something along the lines of `just try rebooting and lets make sure you didn`t go into setup and change something`
You left out the second most heard support suggestion--"reinstall windows".
Nothing like posting anonymously to add credibility to your post.
Everytime there is a a /. article about Yoper, you post the same basic message. I don't know who did what to hurt you, but don't you think it's time to grow up and move on?
Are you sure they have a constitutional right to free speech? I know that individuals do, the constitution says so, but I didn't think that business did. If they do, then how does the FCC and FTC regulate advertising and product claims?
While it is true that they have a right to free speech, as you point out, there are limitations as to how that right can be exercised.
My constitutional right to free speech does not permit me to enter your house without permission to force you to listen. At best, that's called trespass. At worst, it's breaking and entering. Either way, the courts say such behaviour is unlawful.
Therefore, my proposal is that anyone who is affected by them, sue them for trespass and/or breaking and entering, as they have entered private property, my house, to excercise their free speech. To proof their trespass or breaking and entry, one just needs to look at the computer. Free speech does not cover physically altering tangible property (the image of the hard drive).
So, yes, they have the right to free speech. They just don't have the right to come into my home to exercise it.
Heck, why go after the "Anonymous Coward?" There are much bigger stakes here. Microsoft is the one who designed Windows to allow you to hold down the shift key to stop auto-play. So, they are the ones who are providing the method to circumvent the DRM that violates the DMCA.
Anonymous Coward is a small potato. BMI should go after Microsoft.
DcnJoe60
ps the above comment is copyrighted. Anyone printing it off without permission is violating the DMCA, please send your name and computer and printer manufacturer to my lawyers.
Mandrake cooker, the development version of Mandrake has switched to GCCC 3.4.1, not the release versions. Since the next release of Community and Official are months away, it makes sense for Mandrake to start using the new GCC. By the time the next Mandrake Community is released, GCC 3.4.1 will be officially stable.
So what will these new longhorn computers go for? Say, something like $8,000, since people already pay $3,000 for plasma tvs, and something as souped up as these machines aren't going to have you're current crop of crt or lcd monitors.
Now, let's assume, that because of the price, they only sell 1,000,000. $8,000 times 1,000,000 equals $8,000,000,000!
You could feed a lot of hungry people in the world for 8 billion dollars.
Not quite. IBM lost a big lawsuit in the 60s over bundling hardware and software with their mainframes. The gist of the finding was that since IBM controlled the hardware, their bundling of the OS and other software kept fair competition out (Amdahl, I think). The courts split them in to two divisions - one for hardware, one for software and forced them to quit bundling.
It happened once, it could happen again.
God, I hate replying to my own posts, but I just did a google search on Janus and the third hit was for "The Society of Janus," which is a San Francisco based BDSM education/support group. Maybe that's who they licensed the name from. It would at least be more fitting for what they are trying to do.
I wonder if Microsoft licensed the name Janus from Janus Capital Group (you know the Janus investment funds people).
It might say a lot as to how sincere Microsoft is about abusing other people's rights.
I mean, I'm sure Janus wouldn't want anybody to get confused that Janus Capital Group and Microsoft Janus. Like all of those people confusted between Microsoft Windows and Lindows (other than the judge, there were how many?)!
The courts have already decided that it is legal to copy music off the airwaves. Assuming these "new" Janus devices will have a headphone jack (kind of hard to go jogging and listen to music without it), just plug one of those FM broadcast things like an iRock into the headphone jack.
At that point, all you need do is record to your tape deck or computer the captured broadcast signal. I may take a little longer and the quality may not be exactly the same (but then again, neither are MP3s), but that's a small price to pay.
Now some may argue (incorrectly) that you don't have the right to broadcast the music without a license, but the FCC says you can on low power devices. So you have the FCC saying you can broadcast and the courts saying you can record the broadcast. Case closed.
If the oil companies, for no particular reason, suddenly raise the price of gas to $5/gallon and I sell it to you at $4.95 instead, does that mean I'm not gouging you because I'm the cheapest?
Let's say we weren't talking pennies here, but instead it was $100 per decoder and $200 per encoder. Would they still not be gouging because they were the cheapest (assuming the others were more).
The relationship of price to others in the market doesn't define what gouging is. It's the relationship of price to what is the worth of the product.
The codecs are given away with every copy of Windows. That's fine, it's their product, they can do with what they want. But, one has to assume that they've recovered their development costs on the codecs a long time ago, so what exactly are they licensing?
Besides, you keep claiming that these codecs are open standards and yet, if someone tries to develop a clean room version of one of them, they are taken to court (otherwise, I should be able to decode foreign dvds without worry, right?)
Back to the original topic, if Microsoft is charging for their implimentation of the open standard, then fine, that is their right. If they are charging for anyone's implimentation, then yes they are gouging.
Just think if everytime you bought a car, you had to pay a license fee to Ford (or pick your favorite auto manufacture) for the right to have a steering wheel on the correct side of the vehicle for your country. In essence, that is what Microsoft is doing with their licensing fee of a supposedly open standard. Wouldn't you call that gouging.
And just in case you still can't see it as gouging, I'll sell you the codecs for $63, making me cheaper than Turbolinux. Ah, heck, I'm a nice guy, I'll do it for $59.99.
While I agree in general with your post, the fact that Microsoft charges everyone the same price for something doesn't mean that they still aren't gouging people on the price.
If the street price of Windows XP is $99, and just the codecs for Windows Media Player cost $64, does that mean a stripped down version of Windows XP, without the media player would only be $35? Seems like the license for those codecs are quite expensive compared to the cost of XP itself.
Hey, I even have the gist of the commercial/ad for you.
Show a couple of people standing in an unemployment line with a tag somethink like, "So, why did you get laid off?"
The next guy/gal responds with something like "I heard it was because the company needed to cut expenses so they could afford the latest upgrade to Microsoft Office."
Then switch to "OpenOffice.org -- free to upgrade, free to use."
Just a thought.
Chapter 11, or whatever the French version is called, is there precisly to keep "creative accounting" from happening. Once declared, the courts oversee all of the accounting practices. That guarantee of sound numbers (whether good or bad) is what creditors and investors rely on.
Remember that Mandrake is still under the court's protection. They can't publish results without the court's approval and verification of the results.
Actually, dual-booting wouldn't come into the picture, because to dual boot linux and windows, you would already have a copy of windows, which would mean you have a license from Microsoft to use FAT.