Not by mandate, but theoretically that's the way it should be. Unless you're going to make some lame-brained argument about how some races are "predisposed" to certain professions
Here's a lame brained argument for you.
There are two sides to a penny. I can flip it 100 times but that doesn't mean it is going to turn up heads exactly 50% of the time and tails exactly 50% of the time. It's entirely possible that it could turn up 80/20 or 60/40 or 30/70. Was there any bias in the coin? No, that's just the way things go. Just because there is the potential for an even toss of the coin does not mean the end will always be even.
People follow the things that interest them. You can't just say "15% of the population is black but only 5% of the gaming industry is - oh noes CONSPIRACIES!".
And by the previously mentioned logic, if a hispanic kid plays videogames twice as much per week than a white kid, he should get two jobs? Isn't the number of people playing more relevant than the number of hours they're playing? And really, what does it matter how many are playing either? That has NOTHING TO DO WITH THOSE MAKING THE GAMES.
I watch movies, but I don't want to be an actor. I read books but I don't want to be an author. I listen to music but I don't want to be in a band. I use a computer but I don't want to design hardware. I buy groceries, but I don't want to be a cashier. I eat corn, but I don't want to be a farmer.
If people are being denied positions because of their ethnicity, that's one thing. But just to throw out some stupid, invented, random "there must be X percentage of Y in Z industry!" for no particular reason is just dumb, sensational and slow-news-day-trolling by the Associated Press.
I think a big part of the problem is that people are constantly told that their viewpoint matters. What they have to say MUST be said and that everyone is obligated to hear it. So you wind up with tens of millions of teenagers and young adults with nothing insightful to contribute, contributing anyway.
Seriously, what reason is there to create a blog or a website unless you have some seriously valuable content? Just because you have an opinion or a thought doesn't mean you need a site to claim it on. People use their blogs and sites like a portal to their "intellect". A way to fluff their ego and draw friends (which is pathetic since they're just other people online spread around the world that shouldn't matter to you). But they're all just dying for kudos to be posted to their blog posts by the throngs of masses that care so much about the conditions of a breakup or divorce or hard day at college.
Sometimes the best thing you can do is just shut up. Or, in this case, not have a blog or a website. Just like some people choose not to pollute the world with more crappy children by not having any, others should choose not to pollute the internet by not running a stupid blog. I made the choice not to bother running any website that has anything to do with my viewpoints or thoughts on the world. Those are mine and while I'll share them personally in face to face situations as appropriate to discussions, I'm not going to throw them out as some "valuable" point of reference on the internet. Doing so is just the hight in deluded self-importance.
Really, 99.9999% of blogs and personal websites seem like the equivalent of the guy or girl hanging out in a group who can just never shut up, always have to be the center of attention and feel that every thought that enters their brain has to be expressed and discussed and acknowledged by their friends. It's just sad and pathetic and polluted.
And it isn't that people shouldn't be able to share their thoughts or ideas. But that's what Slashdot and Usenet and other outlets are for. If you have thoughts on tech news, discuss them on Slashdot. If you have thoughts on politics, share them on a political site. Just please stop fucking creating a new blog or site for every person with every view in the world. That defeats the entire purpose of the internet. Rather than bringing people together to discuss things, it turns into one big sloshy pit where there are billions of completely separated and often unheard voices. It makes every person and their thoughts an island and nobody is going to go out surfing from island to island to island when they could just participate in the bigger conversation with more mindful groups on the mainland.
What I don't understand is what the number of hours a particular ethnicity plays videogames per week has to do with what percentage of that ethnicity there should be in gaming.
The fact is that almost 81.7% of the country is caucasian. So obviously there will statistically be far more caucasians in any one area than there are of any other group.
So I guess someone needs to figure out how we're going to start relating population to employment in each industry. And what is going to happen when we run out of minorities to balance out the numbers? I mean, if they think we need to have exactly 50% white and 50% black and hispanic, we're going to end up with a massive population of unemployed white people and WAY TOO FEW minorities to fill that other 50%. I mean, if only 12% of the population is of a particular ethnicity, there's no way that 12% can fill 50% of the positions... So... we need some sort of an agreed formula.
And if there aren't enough people of a certain color who are interested in a certain field, the government should force them to pick up a certain career. And if you don't accept it, you should be put in prison until you change your mind.
The most important thing that can be done on the web is to remind people that just because you have a place to say something and something to say doesn't mean it needs to be said, shared, posted or heard. That's why I don't have a website on my domain. I don't have anything particularly unique to share with the world that isn't shared a hundred thousand times already on the internet. But people think that they're obligated to post every thought that ever crosses their mind and are so sure that the rest of the world gives a fuck.
Worse is that we have all of these social networking sites which encourage this sort of bland clique-esque behavior where nothing of any value is generated or contributed.
"Blogging" is the worst thing to ever hit the web. You used to have to put together your own site and have some idea of what you were doing and make some effort and you had to construct the way you were going to say things and present them and categorize them. Now you can just sign up for a free blogging account at google and start spouting off inane crap about your boring life and try to impress people with how cool and insightful you are.
Instead of having 5,000,000 individual "sites" (blogs) commenting on the same subject-of-the-day and expecting people to come to them, they should be sharing their comments (unless they're so utterly different and unique and special or whatever) in community forums like Slashdot. Can you imagine if, rather than reading a page under an article on slashdot to get everyone's thoughts on it - you had to visit each of the poster's websites, look for today's date and then read their thoughts on it?
Blogs segregate the internet. Every person - every individual - becomes their own outlet so the information is no longer aggregated except for third party systems Technorati or Digg. So now instead of having a lot of people participating in a few sites you have one site and source for each person and view. And those people participate in the other outlets and communities as much, because they expect people to come to them.
Really, I see Livejournal and its siblings as some of the most viral and insidious things to ever creep onto the web. Now it's just all about "I'm cool. I have deep thoughts. Look at this picture of my boobs. I hope someone asks me out so I can have an internet date".
So every profession must maintain the exact equal representation that exists in the overall population according to the US Census?
Seriously now, this is 2005. Do you think that EA or Ubi are going around saying "Damn it, all our applications are non-white. I'm tired of having to throw their resumes in the trash. We don't want no stinking women or non-whites"?!
I work for a huge company in the tech industry and more of my coworkers are "non-white" than are. I don't particularly care. I just like working with good people, whoever they are. If more minorities want to work in the game industry, more minorities will focus on the necessary skills through school and pursue game development and computer science through college and into their career. If they don't, they won't. It's as simple as that. There is no set rule that a certain percentage of certain types of people need to be doing everything. And just because the same percentage of the country of a certain race doesn't match up in a certain industry doesn't imply any sort of racism or mistreatment or negativity WHATSOEVER.
As for representation in the videogames themselves... if you're so offended because one character is white and another is black and another is mexican... go fucking play tetris or something. The last thing we need is more cry babies.
Look, if you like games and can afford them, play them. If you don't, don't. Whatever.
I'm tired of hearing every other day about how transvestite inuite natives transplanted to the lower SE of California, born on Tuesdays are brutally neglected from videogaming.
I'm a white male in my late 20s and I grew up during the biggest days of gaming and MTV and didn't indulge in either of those things until I was an adult. Guess what? I was okay. My life wasn't destroyed because I couldn't play Megaman on the NES.
As for the characters in games - who cares? As long as they just feel appropriate, it's fine with me. I didn't play GTA:SA and think "oh this sucks, the main character is a black man. There is no possible way I can identify with him and enjoy playing this game!".
I'm beginning to think that the real "racism" is harbored by those who implicate the industry in some sort of "unintentional racism".
Right. Microsoft, with about 90% of the market is afraid of the 2% of the market that uses linux, of which perhaps 5% (one tenth of a percent of overall market share) actually uses WINE. I'm sure it's a huge focal point for them to bother preventing Linux using SWINE running users from getting MS updates.
Reminds me of crazy 7-11 cashiers who swear the government is after them for all of their super-sophisticated 7-11 employee slurpee knowledge.
You should write your own software if your law-firm-specific needs aren't already addressed by OSS. If you can't do that, you should pay someone to develop it for you. Otherwise, you should shut the fuck up and go back to windows you parasitic n00b!
I don't agree with those comments, but that tends to be a common reaction. Nobody ever stops to think that the needs of one person might actually be the needs of many other people, too and that by addressing the needs of that one person they could be addressing the needs of hundreds or thousands or more; expanding the reach of OSS and Linux.
Of course, I don't see how there could still remain any such unfulfilled needs. After all, Linux has been "ready for the desktop" since like 1998 and 2005 is "the year of linux"... Kind of like 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999 and 1998.
Except nobody is going around saying "I demand that you fix this for me, even though I haven't paid for it". They're saying "This doesn't do what I want or have everything I want, so I'm going to use something else".
And to expect a company like Tommy Hilfiger to go into the software development business is silly.
And as mentioned several times already, most businesses DO pay for linux. And the companies they pay for linux from usually (always?) return something to the community. For example - RedHat and Suse.
And do you really think that big businesses goes out an downloads a free copy of Knoppix or Debian rather than Redhat or SUSE with a huge support contract? These people ARE paying for Linux. They ARE supporting linux.
But clearly that isn't enough for linux zealots which is why I've stopped identifying myself as one. I just want linux to get a sizable foothold everywhere and spread. I don't really care who uses it for free and who doesn't and who has support contracts for it and who doesn't.
And nobody is talking about "linux people" being rude. We're talking about then crying in their milk like little babies because more people aren't using linux. Then when people explain why they haven't chosen linux for their company yet, they get all foaming at the mouth at the company. Either stop bitching about the lack of linux use or stop being an asshole when people make critical comments about linux in the context of "here is why we can't/won't use it right now".
I can't wait to see their contributions. Oh wait, you mean they are just demanding and doing nothing?
Who cares what they demand then?
I'm really tired of hearing people whine "how come linux isn't the most popular!" and "boo hoo, we don't rule the desktop or business world" and then turn around and make comments like this.
You either want the 'product' to be popular and wide spread and usable or you don't. Whether or not they contribute isn't important. Are you suggesting that someone' s grandmother should just take whatever offering linux shoves at her and not have the right to complain about anything at all, because she hasn't submitted a kernel patch yet?
Seriously. Get off it, people. These attitudes are PRECISELY why linux still fails to command huge shares in the various markets. The technical and business shortcomings of the linux software can be overcome. It's the shitty attitudes that need the most work.
I run a popular and completely free website and when people complain about something not working or wishing it worked a different way, I don't say "well fuck you - you haven't come to my house and written any code for me!" -- I fucking take it into consideration and try to fix it or improve on it as they would like.
And how many static IP addresses will Qwest give you in that price? And are there more than five people who live close enough to actually get those kind of speeds? And are they fine with you running your own web and mail servers?
As far as comcast, don't forget to add the extra $10 if you don't also have Cable TV. And don't forget modem rental. And installation (even if you do it yourself, they'll charge you about $50). And Franchise fees. And taxes.
Of course, I should mention that the price you quote is not bad based on the American cost of living. I have no idea how much it costs to live in South Africa or what the pay scales are or minimum wages or job market or unemployment rate or anything else.
ADSL services from our Telecoms provider are charged R270 - R480 - roughly $US40 - $US72 (and that's just for the *line rental*) - that excludes our ISP costs (at least another R200 or $US30) and there is a 3 Gig cap.
Aside from the 3gig cap, that's not too bad of a deal. With Qwest, you could get something like 256kbps for $30 or so per month. If you want a real ISP with some amount of freedom and no connection resets every couple of hours, it would probably cost you about $70/mo for a 768kbps line from the phone company and maybe $80/mo for the service from an ISP. So about $150/mo for 768kbps DSL.
Or if you went with cable, it would be about $65/mo for 6mbit/768kbps. Of course, you're unlikely to ever get those speeds since al of areas are incredibly saturated. I get about 2mbit if I'm lucky (with Comcast) and it's entirely to do with saturation, because when everyone is gone on particular days, I'm able to almost max out my bandwidth.
Just becuase the US is a "developed nation" doesn't mean our broadband is. In fact, it most certainly is not. There are a LOT of places where you can't get anything but dialup with really dirty lines (probably more people can NOT get broadband than CAN). And since there are usually monopolies in the area, they can charge whatever the hell they feel like. For example, cable has to compete with DSL. cable does not have to compete with other cable providers. And DSL lines are provided by your phone company. Period. So they can charge whatever *they* want for the wire.
As long as you're not buying one of their LCD ACDs, in which case they're built to deteriorate before you even get them and are crap within a few years. But at least you get to still spend the insane Apple price.
Frankly, there could be benefits from and novel uses for a universally globally unique identifier that is always with you and can't be lost.
Such as what? I can't think of any possible uses that would be of interest to the average person. So they can identify my body quicker in the event that I'm burned to a crisp in a terrorist attack. Big fucking deal. Or the hospital will be able to gather my medical records a few minutes quicker and I'll have one less form to complete at the hospital. So what?
The only way they're going to get these into people is by implanting them in CHILDREN before they are old enough to complain or refuse. They'll convince parents that their children will some how magically not be raped or abducted or run away or get lost if only you implant a magical chip in them. And if they do, at least you'll find the body quicker. What with that drastic rate in which 90% of children are either raped or kidnapped during their childhood, of course.
It'll be like those idiotic parents who go to the police sponsored "protect your kid" things at the mall where they gather all of your baby's vital statistics and then get finger prints of the child to put on record as if having fingerprints in a file somewhere is a magic shield against abduction.
There is absolutely nothing to be gained by use of an implanted chip that you can't gain through less intrusive methods, such as an RFID national ID card or a wristband or lapel pin with the same technology in it. Not that I'd wear or carry any of those things either, of course.
Then again, this sort of thing would help the police avoid that whole fourth amendment thing. You'll never have to worry about being stopped and asked by the gestapo to present your documents (which you must carry on you at all times, citizen!). Nope. They'll just scan you from a distance and find out what they wish without your knowledge or consent.
As someone who routinely commutes to work on a bike, I resent the way a lot of people behave at the Critical Mass events for the same reason people with valid peaceful protests hate those who show up just to instigate conflict with the police and break windows.
Bikers are fine. It's one of the best things about Portland. I've seen groups of bikers at events act irresponsibly and like petty children - like it's their free shot at pissing off everyone else on the streets which is absurd considering how most of them (rightfully) abhor the same selfishness and lack of respect that drivers generally give bikers.
Those people would do better leaving Critical Mass gatherings to the responsible people and going up to join in on some Zoobombing instead.
You have to admit, this is a great solution for women. We're always hearing about how it's so unfair because girls get left behind in classes since boys are energetic and raise their hands eagerly to answer questions and girls feel so intimidated that they can't open their damned mouths and participate (funny, because after about 16 years that's ALL they do for the REST of YOUR life!).
And then they'll have to start putting clickers in the board room and every office across the country, so that women can participate in business meetings and discussions and brainstorming sessions without having to feel intimidated by the boys.
Clickers will save the world and equalize the sexes!
The night scene in Portland is laughable compared to any other sizable city. Yeah, there are a lot of places to go get drunk on a barstool, but that's not exactly "night life". And whatever nightlife their actually is, is pretty damn small person-wise. I've known people that had to stop going out because they made a fool of their dumbass in one place and because the scene is so small, would easily be picked out of the crowd at any other place at night.
Portland has a lot of cool things. Night life is not one of them.
Then again, I hate clubbing and night life and all of that, so it's not a down side to *me*... But I know a lot of people that were excited about moving, visited for a bit and decided the nightlife didn't measure up.
Anyway, Rick Emerson and Clyde Lewis aren't on the air on MAX910 anymore. And they really were the best thing about the city.
Yeah, because getting your eyeball knocked out of your head by the cops leaves you with perfect chart vision... Pig lover. Go back to worshipping The Man, you fascist apologist!
Slashdot Mirror
Not by mandate, but theoretically that's the way it should be. Unless you're going to make some lame-brained argument about how some races are "predisposed" to certain professions
Here's a lame brained argument for you.
There are two sides to a penny. I can flip it 100 times but that doesn't mean it is going to turn up heads exactly 50% of the time and tails exactly 50% of the time. It's entirely possible that it could turn up 80/20 or 60/40 or 30/70. Was there any bias in the coin? No, that's just the way things go. Just because there is the potential for an even toss of the coin does not mean the end will always be even.
People follow the things that interest them. You can't just say "15% of the population is black but only 5% of the gaming industry is - oh noes CONSPIRACIES!".
And by the previously mentioned logic, if a hispanic kid plays videogames twice as much per week than a white kid, he should get two jobs? Isn't the number of people playing more relevant than the number of hours they're playing? And really, what does it matter how many are playing either? That has NOTHING TO DO WITH THOSE MAKING THE GAMES.
I watch movies, but I don't want to be an actor. I read books but I don't want to be an author. I listen to music but I don't want to be in a band. I use a computer but I don't want to design hardware. I buy groceries, but I don't want to be a cashier. I eat corn, but I don't want to be a farmer.
If people are being denied positions because of their ethnicity, that's one thing. But just to throw out some stupid, invented, random "there must be X percentage of Y in Z industry!" for no particular reason is just dumb, sensational and slow-news-day-trolling by the Associated Press.
~82% of the U.S. population is certainly not "white." I'm sure the illegal aliens are not going to chime in.
Illegal aliens aren't legally employable.
I think a big part of the problem is that people are constantly told that their viewpoint matters. What they have to say MUST be said and that everyone is obligated to hear it. So you wind up with tens of millions of teenagers and young adults with nothing insightful to contribute, contributing anyway.
Seriously, what reason is there to create a blog or a website unless you have some seriously valuable content? Just because you have an opinion or a thought doesn't mean you need a site to claim it on. People use their blogs and sites like a portal to their "intellect". A way to fluff their ego and draw friends (which is pathetic since they're just other people online spread around the world that shouldn't matter to you). But they're all just dying for kudos to be posted to their blog posts by the throngs of masses that care so much about the conditions of a breakup or divorce or hard day at college.
Sometimes the best thing you can do is just shut up. Or, in this case, not have a blog or a website. Just like some people choose not to pollute the world with more crappy children by not having any, others should choose not to pollute the internet by not running a stupid blog. I made the choice not to bother running any website that has anything to do with my viewpoints or thoughts on the world. Those are mine and while I'll share them personally in face to face situations as appropriate to discussions, I'm not going to throw them out as some "valuable" point of reference on the internet. Doing so is just the hight in deluded self-importance.
Really, 99.9999% of blogs and personal websites seem like the equivalent of the guy or girl hanging out in a group who can just never shut up, always have to be the center of attention and feel that every thought that enters their brain has to be expressed and discussed and acknowledged by their friends. It's just sad and pathetic and polluted.
And it isn't that people shouldn't be able to share their thoughts or ideas. But that's what Slashdot and Usenet and other outlets are for. If you have thoughts on tech news, discuss them on Slashdot. If you have thoughts on politics, share them on a political site. Just please stop fucking creating a new blog or site for every person with every view in the world. That defeats the entire purpose of the internet. Rather than bringing people together to discuss things, it turns into one big sloshy pit where there are billions of completely separated and often unheard voices. It makes every person and their thoughts an island and nobody is going to go out surfing from island to island to island when they could just participate in the bigger conversation with more mindful groups on the mainland.
What I don't understand is what the number of hours a particular ethnicity plays videogames per week has to do with what percentage of that ethnicity there should be in gaming.
The fact is that almost 81.7% of the country is caucasian. So obviously there will statistically be far more caucasians in any one area than there are of any other group.
So I guess someone needs to figure out how we're going to start relating population to employment in each industry. And what is going to happen when we run out of minorities to balance out the numbers? I mean, if they think we need to have exactly 50% white and 50% black and hispanic, we're going to end up with a massive population of unemployed white people and WAY TOO FEW minorities to fill that other 50%. I mean, if only 12% of the population is of a particular ethnicity, there's no way that 12% can fill 50% of the positions... So... we need some sort of an agreed formula.
And if there aren't enough people of a certain color who are interested in a certain field, the government should force them to pick up a certain career. And if you don't accept it, you should be put in prison until you change your mind.
The most important thing that can be done on the web is to remind people that just because you have a place to say something and something to say doesn't mean it needs to be said, shared, posted or heard. That's why I don't have a website on my domain. I don't have anything particularly unique to share with the world that isn't shared a hundred thousand times already on the internet. But people think that they're obligated to post every thought that ever crosses their mind and are so sure that the rest of the world gives a fuck.
Worse is that we have all of these social networking sites which encourage this sort of bland clique-esque behavior where nothing of any value is generated or contributed.
"Blogging" is the worst thing to ever hit the web. You used to have to put together your own site and have some idea of what you were doing and make some effort and you had to construct the way you were going to say things and present them and categorize them. Now you can just sign up for a free blogging account at google and start spouting off inane crap about your boring life and try to impress people with how cool and insightful you are.
Instead of having 5,000,000 individual "sites" (blogs) commenting on the same subject-of-the-day and expecting people to come to them, they should be sharing their comments (unless they're so utterly different and unique and special or whatever) in community forums like Slashdot. Can you imagine if, rather than reading a page under an article on slashdot to get everyone's thoughts on it - you had to visit each of the poster's websites, look for today's date and then read their thoughts on it?
Blogs segregate the internet. Every person - every individual - becomes their own outlet so the information is no longer aggregated except for third party systems Technorati or Digg. So now instead of having a lot of people participating in a few sites you have one site and source for each person and view. And those people participate in the other outlets and communities as much, because they expect people to come to them.
Really, I see Livejournal and its siblings as some of the most viral and insidious things to ever creep onto the web. Now it's just all about "I'm cool. I have deep thoughts. Look at this picture of my boobs. I hope someone asks me out so I can have an internet date".
Fucking pathetic.
So every profession must maintain the exact equal representation that exists in the overall population according to the US Census?
Seriously now, this is 2005. Do you think that EA or Ubi are going around saying "Damn it, all our applications are non-white. I'm tired of having to throw their resumes in the trash. We don't want no stinking women or non-whites"?!
I work for a huge company in the tech industry and more of my coworkers are "non-white" than are. I don't particularly care. I just like working with good people, whoever they are. If more minorities want to work in the game industry, more minorities will focus on the necessary skills through school and pursue game development and computer science through college and into their career. If they don't, they won't. It's as simple as that. There is no set rule that a certain percentage of certain types of people need to be doing everything. And just because the same percentage of the country of a certain race doesn't match up in a certain industry doesn't imply any sort of racism or mistreatment or negativity WHATSOEVER.
As for representation in the videogames themselves... if you're so offended because one character is white and another is black and another is mexican... go fucking play tetris or something. The last thing we need is more cry babies.
Look, if you like games and can afford them, play them. If you don't, don't. Whatever.
I'm tired of hearing every other day about how transvestite inuite natives transplanted to the lower SE of California, born on Tuesdays are brutally neglected from videogaming.
I'm a white male in my late 20s and I grew up during the biggest days of gaming and MTV and didn't indulge in either of those things until I was an adult. Guess what? I was okay. My life wasn't destroyed because I couldn't play Megaman on the NES.
As for the characters in games - who cares? As long as they just feel appropriate, it's fine with me. I didn't play GTA:SA and think "oh this sucks, the main character is a black man. There is no possible way I can identify with him and enjoy playing this game!".
I'm beginning to think that the real "racism" is harbored by those who implicate the industry in some sort of "unintentional racism".
They say they'll have hardware by mid-2006.
Does this mean we can just force gamers to switch to this new card to save that 0.0000025% energy rather than fucking around with DST?
But Zonk is still posting articles.
Right. Microsoft, with about 90% of the market is afraid of the 2% of the market that uses linux, of which perhaps 5% (one tenth of a percent of overall market share) actually uses WINE. I'm sure it's a huge focal point for them to bother preventing Linux using SWINE running users from getting MS updates.
Reminds me of crazy 7-11 cashiers who swear the government is after them for all of their super-sophisticated 7-11 employee slurpee knowledge.
You should write your own software if your law-firm-specific needs aren't already addressed by OSS. If you can't do that, you should pay someone to develop it for you. Otherwise, you should shut the fuck up and go back to windows you parasitic n00b!
I don't agree with those comments, but that tends to be a common reaction. Nobody ever stops to think that the needs of one person might actually be the needs of many other people, too and that by addressing the needs of that one person they could be addressing the needs of hundreds or thousands or more; expanding the reach of OSS and Linux.
Of course, I don't see how there could still remain any such unfulfilled needs. After all, Linux has been "ready for the desktop" since like 1998 and 2005 is "the year of linux"... Kind of like 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999 and 1998.
Except nobody is going around saying "I demand that you fix this for me, even though I haven't paid for it". They're saying "This doesn't do what I want or have everything I want, so I'm going to use something else".
And to expect a company like Tommy Hilfiger to go into the software development business is silly.
And as mentioned several times already, most businesses DO pay for linux. And the companies they pay for linux from usually (always?) return something to the community. For example - RedHat and Suse.
So there are no huge corporate linux entities?!
And do you really think that big businesses goes out an downloads a free copy of Knoppix or Debian rather than Redhat or SUSE with a huge support contract? These people ARE paying for Linux. They ARE supporting linux.
But clearly that isn't enough for linux zealots which is why I've stopped identifying myself as one. I just want linux to get a sizable foothold everywhere and spread. I don't really care who uses it for free and who doesn't and who has support contracts for it and who doesn't.
And nobody is talking about "linux people" being rude. We're talking about then crying in their milk like little babies because more people aren't using linux. Then when people explain why they haven't chosen linux for their company yet, they get all foaming at the mouth at the company. Either stop bitching about the lack of linux use or stop being an asshole when people make critical comments about linux in the context of "here is why we can't/won't use it right now".
So, no, Microsoft is not out to exterminate Linux or Open Source,
Yeah, and Hitler told the Jews to just cram into the ovens for a nice "shower".
I love it too. You don't seem to grasp the concept that Slashdot is not a single human being with one viewpoint.
You must be new here.
There's a FAQ regarding Moderators, though.
I can't wait to see their contributions. Oh wait, you mean they are just demanding and doing nothing?
Who cares what they demand then?
I'm really tired of hearing people whine "how come linux isn't the most popular!" and "boo hoo, we don't rule the desktop or business world" and then turn around and make comments like this.
You either want the 'product' to be popular and wide spread and usable or you don't. Whether or not they contribute isn't important. Are you suggesting that someone' s grandmother should just take whatever offering linux shoves at her and not have the right to complain about anything at all, because she hasn't submitted a kernel patch yet?
Seriously. Get off it, people. These attitudes are PRECISELY why linux still fails to command huge shares in the various markets. The technical and business shortcomings of the linux software can be overcome. It's the shitty attitudes that need the most work.
I run a popular and completely free website and when people complain about something not working or wishing it worked a different way, I don't say "well fuck you - you haven't come to my house and written any code for me!" -- I fucking take it into consideration and try to fix it or improve on it as they would like.
And how many static IP addresses will Qwest give you in that price? And are there more than five people who live close enough to actually get those kind of speeds? And are they fine with you running your own web and mail servers?
As far as comcast, don't forget to add the extra $10 if you don't also have Cable TV. And don't forget modem rental. And installation (even if you do it yourself, they'll charge you about $50). And Franchise fees. And taxes.
Of course, I should mention that the price you quote is not bad based on the American cost of living. I have no idea how much it costs to live in South Africa or what the pay scales are or minimum wages or job market or unemployment rate or anything else.
ADSL services from our Telecoms provider are charged R270 - R480 - roughly $US40 - $US72 (and that's just for the *line rental*) - that excludes our ISP costs (at least another R200 or $US30) and there is a 3 Gig cap.
Aside from the 3gig cap, that's not too bad of a deal. With Qwest, you could get something like 256kbps for $30 or so per month. If you want a real ISP with some amount of freedom and no connection resets every couple of hours, it would probably cost you about $70/mo for a 768kbps line from the phone company and maybe $80/mo for the service from an ISP. So about $150/mo for 768kbps DSL.
Or if you went with cable, it would be about $65/mo for 6mbit/768kbps. Of course, you're unlikely to ever get those speeds since al of areas are incredibly saturated. I get about 2mbit if I'm lucky (with Comcast) and it's entirely to do with saturation, because when everyone is gone on particular days, I'm able to almost max out my bandwidth.
Just becuase the US is a "developed nation" doesn't mean our broadband is. In fact, it most certainly is not. There are a LOT of places where you can't get anything but dialup with really dirty lines (probably more people can NOT get broadband than CAN). And since there are usually monopolies in the area, they can charge whatever the hell they feel like. For example, cable has to compete with DSL. cable does not have to compete with other cable providers. And DSL lines are provided by your phone company. Period. So they can charge whatever *they* want for the wire.
As long as you're not buying one of their LCD ACDs, in which case they're built to deteriorate before you even get them and are crap within a few years. But at least you get to still spend the insane Apple price.
:)
But yeah, I agree as far as their laptops.
Frankly, there could be benefits from and novel uses for a universally globally unique identifier that is always with you and can't be lost.
Such as what? I can't think of any possible uses that would be of interest to the average person. So they can identify my body quicker in the event that I'm burned to a crisp in a terrorist attack. Big fucking deal. Or the hospital will be able to gather my medical records a few minutes quicker and I'll have one less form to complete at the hospital. So what?
The only way they're going to get these into people is by implanting them in CHILDREN before they are old enough to complain or refuse. They'll convince parents that their children will some how magically not be raped or abducted or run away or get lost if only you implant a magical chip in them. And if they do, at least you'll find the body quicker. What with that drastic rate in which 90% of children are either raped or kidnapped during their childhood, of course.
It'll be like those idiotic parents who go to the police sponsored "protect your kid" things at the mall where they gather all of your baby's vital statistics and then get finger prints of the child to put on record as if having fingerprints in a file somewhere is a magic shield against abduction.
There is absolutely nothing to be gained by use of an implanted chip that you can't gain through less intrusive methods, such as an RFID national ID card or a wristband or lapel pin with the same technology in it. Not that I'd wear or carry any of those things either, of course.
Then again, this sort of thing would help the police avoid that whole fourth amendment thing. You'll never have to worry about being stopped and asked by the gestapo to present your documents (which you must carry on you at all times, citizen!). Nope. They'll just scan you from a distance and find out what they wish without your knowledge or consent.
As someone who routinely commutes to work on a bike, I resent the way a lot of people behave at the Critical Mass events for the same reason people with valid peaceful protests hate those who show up just to instigate conflict with the police and break windows.
Bikers are fine. It's one of the best things about Portland. I've seen groups of bikers at events act irresponsibly and like petty children - like it's their free shot at pissing off everyone else on the streets which is absurd considering how most of them (rightfully) abhor the same selfishness and lack of respect that drivers generally give bikers.
Those people would do better leaving Critical Mass gatherings to the responsible people and going up to join in on some Zoobombing instead.
You have to admit, this is a great solution for women. We're always hearing about how it's so unfair because girls get left behind in classes since boys are energetic and raise their hands eagerly to answer questions and girls feel so intimidated that they can't open their damned mouths and participate (funny, because after about 16 years that's ALL they do for the REST of YOUR life!).
And then they'll have to start putting clickers in the board room and every office across the country, so that women can participate in business meetings and discussions and brainstorming sessions without having to feel intimidated by the boys.
Clickers will save the world and equalize the sexes!
The night scene in Portland is laughable compared to any other sizable city. Yeah, there are a lot of places to go get drunk on a barstool, but that's not exactly "night life". And whatever nightlife their actually is, is pretty damn small person-wise. I've known people that had to stop going out because they made a fool of their dumbass in one place and because the scene is so small, would easily be picked out of the crowd at any other place at night.
Portland has a lot of cool things. Night life is not one of them.
Then again, I hate clubbing and night life and all of that, so it's not a down side to *me*... But I know a lot of people that were excited about moving, visited for a bit and decided the nightlife didn't measure up.
Anyway, Rick Emerson and Clyde Lewis aren't on the air on MAX910 anymore. And they really were the best thing about the city.
Yeah, because getting your eyeball knocked out of your head by the cops leaves you with perfect chart vision... Pig lover. Go back to worshipping The Man, you fascist apologist!