Especially if "LazyLightning.org" the book was about a webmaster who loved goats a little too much, and spent most of his day vomiting on orphans. Remember, the subject matter of the katie.com book is something very close to what katie.com the site is trying to erradicate.
Because those reviews are obviously from people who haven't read the book. I mean, the reviews are supposed to be feedback about the book, not about something else. They're also bound to be blatantly unobjective and biassed, which skews the rating of the book./. fucked with amazon's data, and they unfucked it. What's wrong with that?
Re:Obligatory Old European Response, WTF?
on
Ready, Aim, HACK!
·
· Score: 1
And most gun owners are white, middle-class, and vote republican. Not the most caring people in the world (and some would say selfish). That's a pretty valid target, if you ask me.
If the 2nd ammendment was rewritten today, with todays needs in mind (and not those 200+ years ago), there wouldn't be a 2nd ammendment. Or if there was, it would be two words. The military. Not a bunch of accountants running around with handguns, making "pow! pow!" sounds. Like they could force off an attack from anyone, apart form some other accountants. Guns don't make soldiers. Just because you have the means to kill a person, doesn't mean you would be able to. Shit. I have lots of frying pans and food at home, yet you wouldn't want me cooking for you:)
Re:Yet another reason to get the *cheap* phones
on
Ready, Aim, HACK!
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I hear ya! I'd never want a cellphone I could wirelessly connect up to my PDA to give me the internet whereever I am anywhere in Europe. That sounds horrible.
If you would run around with your bluetooth turned on and advertising itself, of course there's a risk. Lots of features on phones are silly, but bluetooth is genuinely useful. I sit at my PC at work, and my address book syncs with my phone while it's still in my pocket. When I'm listening to music from my computer on my headphones, I can make calls on my phone, and use my microphone and headphones as a headset. I already mentioned the networking.
Bag on polyphonic ringtones if you want, but bluetooth is an excellent technology.
I understand where you're coming from, so let me answer your points:
Playing videos on Windows is even easier than that. You just download ffdshow and ac3codec, and you're set. You can then play divx, xvid, any mpeg, and lots of raw format files with complete hardware acceleration (regardless of video card, as long as it's less than 6 years old). The ac3codec gives you ac3 sound, which as it's a directshow filter, gives you hardware-accelerated sound. That's it. Two files you have to run. The player is built into windows (and does a fine job).
The file structure? Let me go look at a linux box...
bin
boot
dev
etc
home
initrd
lib
lost+found
misc
mnt
opt
proc
root
sbin
tftpboot
tmp
usr
var
Hmm... to me, that's not very intuitive. Call me old fashioned, but where the heck does anything go? At least on windows you get this:
Program files
Documents and Settings
Windows
Well, that makes more sense. I can tell my files go in "documents and settings", windows sits in "windows" (and only "windows"), and my software is in "program files". How you can even compare the two on complexity is beyond me.
I've seen kde and pretty much everything else you can name, and there are always MANY apps (even ones that come WITH the OS) that seem to ignore the skins completely. They break the consistency. Of course you get them with Windows, too, but not included, and you rarely come across any. That's my point. Until most things actually look the way you intend, it's going to take a back seat. The public is fickle.
You can get a 20mb windows install too, you know. I'm talking about the front-runners. The flagship distros out there that are competing with windows. They are MUCH larger, even when you don't select "everything" (which I've never, ever done anyway). You can't remove IE from Windows, as IE has lots of functionality Firefox doesn't. IE is available to the rest of the OS via COM object, activeX and DLLs, whereas firefox isn't. Windows relies on that to generate HTML previews, and render all the HTML-based content in Windows. That's quite a bit, seeing as Windows' native help format is based on HTML. Asking why you can't remove that is like asking why you can't remove the engine from your car and still drive it around.
I've never had any products on windows screw up the OS to the point of re-installation. Ever. I can't imagine where you even pulled that one from. As for linux, it's a whole lot easier. As most apps have files spanning multiple directories and dependencies across the whole system, it's easy for an errant install to remove (or overwrite) something another app depends on. The sprawling dependency means the system is unstable. You can't deny that - linux's dependencies are a weakness as well as a strength. I'm beginning to think you know even less about linux than I do...;)
I do have objectivity. I use linux boxes and windows boxes at work. I try to make linux do exactly what I want, and I can't. I go back to it time and time again, when I hear some ground-breaking improvements on slashdot. Believe me, objectivity is one thing I have in spades. I've spent hours and hours installing linux onto PCs, and attempting to get them to function as well as my Windows PC, and to no avail. There simply isn't the support for it. Everything is too disparate, made by too many people with conflicting ideas. That means products don't gel well. That means there are too many "But if you're running [library] x.y.z, do this first" buried deep in a README somewhere. That's fact. I've seen it a thousand times, and I've heard it from friends of mine who are hard-core linux guys.
My windows box is stable. It's secure. It runs every single piece of top-name software I can think of. When I see a piece of hardware, I just install it. I know full well there are FREE drivers to install, which will make it work fine. I can pick up a game o
So, instead of proving ideas how to fix the problem, you're in favour of throwing the whole OS out the window? Very good. Genius. Sheesh.
We're talking about a TROJAN here. You could write one for Linux easily. You could write one for any OS that has a TCP/IP stack and can execute programs. This is clearly not a microsoft-only problem, so stop treating it as such. All you're doing is showing your complete lack of objectivity and reasonable thought when dealing with an article that mentions "microsoft". The/. disease.
Unless your were randomly running strange applications on your car's PocketPC, this won't affect you. It's a trojan. It can happen on ANY OPERATING SYSTEM WITH TCP/IP. Sheesh. Anyway, your car would be running Windows Embedded, which is a completely different product.
People can't even bash microsoft properly these days. But still they try.
Errr. because there are more Windows PDAs out there than Palm ones, and Palm PDAs can't do as much as the windows ones (and so are less apt for trojans, etc.). It's not brain science:)
Of course it can't be thrown out the window. Sheesh. Windows PDAs are way more complicated than their Palm equivalents, and with that extra complexity (and power) comes an increased risk of viruses. And, in the PDA world, the largest market share is Windows, so the argument still stands. I guess you'll have to bash microsoft some other way.
Have you even seen an 800mhz crusoe and 1gb of storage recently?? You can fit both in the palm of your hand. We're not in 1983 any more. Complaining about the size shows how hard you're clutching at straws. I mean, sheesh. If it was linux you'd be all over it. "oh it's so cool! i love it! linux rules!". Every single article on/. has some assclown calling something microsoft-based crap, for absolutely no good reason whatsoever. The most disappointing thing is the rest of the/. community doesn't correct such blatant assclownisms, but eggs them on. Really, really sad.
Have you read about XP embedded? It's a pick-and-choose OS, so you can select exactly what you want. That means no bloat. Absolutely none. Kinda destroys your ill-conceived argument, and shows it really was a rant against Microsoft.
I won't get away from Windows for a few reasons. First, I want the easiest way to use my computer effectively. I'm not against Linux, heck I have no loyalties when it comes to software. I just want to use the most effective tool at my disposal. Just because something's touted as the best X since sliced bread, doesn't mean it'll help me do my job any better or faster. I know people will read this and be all angry that a Windows user is trying to at least shed some light on why people use Windows, but please bear with me:
I know you can watch videos and stuff on Linux, but I've had terrible times trying to get various codecs etc. to work. I'm no computer-illiterate fool, either - I regularly set up linux boxes at work for various things (samba3/cups print servers, file servers, routers, etc.), yet it's still hard to install such things. You also don't get the sheer range of codecs and variations available for Windows.
Games. I know you can play games on Linux, but you don't have the selection of games available to Windows users. I also know wine can play many games, but you don't get full-on D3D hardware acceleration. Every layer you add between your desktop and the software you use slows things down. On Windows, there is only D3D.
File structure. Try explaining to your gran what your average linux path means. I've been using linux for years and I still get lost. That's something needlessly complicated (even if you understand it, you have to admit it). Expecting Joe Average to deal with it when he just wants to write up his report for work is asking a bit much. Even if it turns away only one person in 10, that's still 10% of the prospective market denied.
Standardisation. There is none, whatsoever, on linux. Even apps from the same people can look ridiculously different. People don't want to forgive their OS for looking "diverse" by taking comfort in the ideologies of the producers, that matters not to the average user. Windows, however much you hate it, has had a very tight GUI for years. I know you can get themes and styles for the various GUIs on linux, but it doesn't matter how well you paint a bit of poo, it's still a bit of poo. Until there is a tight, pixel-perfect GUI that has hardware acceleration on Linux, it's going to be playing catch-up to Macs and Windows. People who want eye-candy are going to be going elsewhere.
Bloat. Linux is huge. Again, I know there are various distros that have different numbers of CDs with them, and that each CD has lots of different bits of softwre on them, but I don't want that. I want a sub-600-meg install, and that's it. The extra software? I'll choose that myself, and get the latest versions from the manufacturers myself, instead of using which ever version is on the CD. I don't appreciate having to download 4 ISOs to only install 2 ISOs worth on my computer (especially if the same features can be had on windows in less space, which I find quite frequently - Linux installs requiring more space than comparable Windows ones).
I know I'm going to get modded down and flamed and called all-sorts for this post, but I read so much ass on/. about how bad Windows is supposed to be. I'm an open-source developer (and proud of it), but reading all this stuff makes me feel ashamed to be included in the OSS scene. We're supposed to be objective, taking each piece of software at face-value, judging it on its merits, not by what's cool to say about it.
On my windows boxes, I run Apache w/PHP, MySQL, SSH, CVS and all my windows stuff. It's all independent on the system, and there are no dependencies I might break by upgrading one or the other. They all come with graphical installation packages (which, funnily enough, can be run silently over a network, with no interaction), so deploying them is no drama at all.
Breaking. In my experience, when linux breaks, it can take a lot of work getting it right again. With windows, you can just re-install the software that is affected, and you're sailing
That's the cheapest thing I've ever read. Apart from highlighting situations that occur with any software (heck, that would have easily applied to the buying Red Hat, not just windows), you've just pulled things out of your ass. Linux people spouting all that nonsense shows how little about Windows they know before thinking they can bash it. The only thing your post proves is that there is no argument against the parent's post. He hit the nail right on the head, and instead of arguing why Linux is in fact superior, you take potshots at Windows and hope that only linux fanboys read it and feel happy again. Joker.
Well, on windows, you wouldn't need to compile it, as the authors of such apps compile it for you. That's the good thing about a common architecture - compilation isn't needed unless you want to change the code. If you just want to run out-of-the-box, there's absolutely no need.
Another thing - using M$ makes you (and your argument) seem awfully childish. Can't we all use our "big boy" voices here?
So somehow someone guessing that Microsoft has absolutely no QA is judged "insightful"?? I hate to break it to you, but I'm sure there's just as much testing at Microsoft than in your local linux user group. You only make yourself look a little silly when you pull "facts" like that out your ass.
Take solace in the fact that this is slashdot, and those who modded you down probably don't know what NAT means, and are just flexing their mod-muscles in the face of someone who knows better. I agree with you - some ISPs don't want the liability and extra work open IPs cause. I think the stance the company is taking is perfectly understandable. Again, being slashdot, if a company acts in a way that doesn't benefit the/. community in a rapid fashion, there must be something wrong with it, and it should be condemned to the deepest levels of hell, even though it's a sound business idea that might actually be doing a lot of people good.
I knew about the participating on an AD, as I set up a redhat box to be a cups print server on our network. It could authenticate people against the AD using kerberos, and worked well until it got something out of whack and refused to join the network any more. I think it's still a bit buggy:)
I don't mean to be rude, but what's the point of what you're doing? Why do you need linux? It's all eminently possible with windows, and without needing an extra partition and two operating sytems to do the job. I know there are lots of linux zealots who'd use it to scrath their ass if they could, but that's just silly.
1. If the US is such a great bastion of democracy, why is it having such a difficult time showing that to the rest of the world? Why is its government not listening to public consensus? If America wasn't a huge mistake, why is it so crappy now? High crime rate, lots of poor people, causing terrorism around the world, etc. Hardly something for any country to aspire to. Not to mention the corrupt politicians who only represent big business. I find it hilarious someone can even stand up for it. It's a shambles. I have read a lot of history. Funnily enough, there was a lot more before the US came into being. The US wasn't founded on great principles. The bill of rights was just a rehashing of the Magna Carta, signed in 1215. If the US was so down with the bill of rights, etc., then why did it declare war on Canada in 1812, and why did it kill all the Indians. What happened to a right to live? What about the abuse of slaves until the 19th century? What about the use of Chinese labourers to build the railroads, and their systematic destruction?
You can go on believing the US government even cares about you. Unless you contribute 6 figures to their party every year, you're nothing. Get used to it.
2. Not every time. Ever heard of hit and runs? That's when someone drives recklessly, has an accident, and escapes without getting a ticket. If that's possible, it's even more possible for someone to drive recklessly, and get away with it. That's just plain logic.
3. The information only gets sent to the cops (in fact, they're only even notified) when you have an accident. When you have an accident, you've broken the law. It's that simple. Because of that, you are now the business of the police and the government. It's called society, and by living in it you agree to obide by the rules.
4. Traffic accidents are never black and white. If two cars collide, there will be endless speculation from the people involved as to who caused the problem. Having a black box could show you in the clear, or it could condemn you. Either way, the guilty party (and ONLY the guilty party) gets punished. It's got nothing to do with benevolence. The black boxes are only examined after a crash, and not because you've necessarily done something wrong, but to clear up any doubts about an incident that could have affected anyone on the road in the area. It's society being responsible to those living in it. Hardly something to be scared off. I bet you have a problem with postmen - after all, they're government employees WHO HANDLE YOUR MAIL! They even know where you live! Innocent until proven guilty! so scary!
5. Of course everyone should have insurance. Otherwise, people are put in a position where someone can do something to them, and they are liable to the damages caused by someone else. That's hardly fair. If you crash your car and drive off, there will be evidence for it. That evidence is then compounded by the black box, which provides a complete picture of the accident from your car's perspective. Obviously it's not a legal universal bandaid, but it would clear up so much uncertainty in many road accidents.
6. You've side-stepped my point completely. My point isn't that the government won't do anything bad, but if they are likely to, they need to be changed. If you actually read what I was saying, you would realise that. Bashing on about my supposed trust for everyone and anything is ridiculous. I'm saying that the technology can work flawlessly. Any problem with it would be due to the powers that be, which ultimately we decide who they are. Therefor, any shortcomings are our fault, and should be addressed. Blaming bad people for why good technology fails is just stupid. Do something about the bad people.
And, btw, mod scores on slashdot mean nothing. Bias is everything on here. If it cheers you up or makes you feel loved, then that's cool. I guess libertarians take what they can.;)
Slashdot Mirror
Or not use a rifle at all, as the article clearly states ;)
Especially if "LazyLightning.org" the book was about a webmaster who loved goats a little too much, and spent most of his day vomiting on orphans. Remember, the subject matter of the katie.com book is something very close to what katie.com the site is trying to erradicate.
Because those reviews are obviously from people who haven't read the book. I mean, the reviews are supposed to be feedback about the book, not about something else. They're also bound to be blatantly unobjective and biassed, which skews the rating of the book. /. fucked with amazon's data, and they unfucked it. What's wrong with that?
And most gun owners are white, middle-class, and vote republican. Not the most caring people in the world (and some would say selfish). That's a pretty valid target, if you ask me.
If the 2nd ammendment was rewritten today, with todays needs in mind (and not those 200+ years ago), there wouldn't be a 2nd ammendment. Or if there was, it would be two words. The military. Not a bunch of accountants running around with handguns, making "pow! pow!" sounds. Like they could force off an attack from anyone, apart form some other accountants. Guns don't make soldiers. Just because you have the means to kill a person, doesn't mean you would be able to. Shit. I have lots of frying pans and food at home, yet you wouldn't want me cooking for you :)
If you would run around with your bluetooth turned on and advertising itself, of course there's a risk. Lots of features on phones are silly, but bluetooth is genuinely useful. I sit at my PC at work, and my address book syncs with my phone while it's still in my pocket. When I'm listening to music from my computer on my headphones, I can make calls on my phone, and use my microphone and headphones as a headset. I already mentioned the networking.
Bag on polyphonic ringtones if you want, but bluetooth is an excellent technology.
Playing videos on Windows is even easier than that. You just download ffdshow and ac3codec, and you're set. You can then play divx, xvid, any mpeg, and lots of raw format files with complete hardware acceleration (regardless of video card, as long as it's less than 6 years old). The ac3codec gives you ac3 sound, which as it's a directshow filter, gives you hardware-accelerated sound. That's it. Two files you have to run. The player is built into windows (and does a fine job).
The file structure? Let me go look at a linux box...
bin
boot
dev
etc
home
initrd
lib
lost+found
misc
mnt
opt
proc
root
sbin
tftpboot
tmp
usr
var
Hmm... to me, that's not very intuitive. Call me old fashioned, but where the heck does anything go? At least on windows you get this:
Program files
Documents and Settings
Windows
Well, that makes more sense. I can tell my files go in "documents and settings", windows sits in "windows" (and only "windows"), and my software is in "program files". How you can even compare the two on complexity is beyond me.
I've seen kde and pretty much everything else you can name, and there are always MANY apps (even ones that come WITH the OS) that seem to ignore the skins completely. They break the consistency. Of course you get them with Windows, too, but not included, and you rarely come across any. That's my point. Until most things actually look the way you intend, it's going to take a back seat. The public is fickle.
You can get a 20mb windows install too, you know. I'm talking about the front-runners. The flagship distros out there that are competing with windows. They are MUCH larger, even when you don't select "everything" (which I've never, ever done anyway). You can't remove IE from Windows, as IE has lots of functionality Firefox doesn't. IE is available to the rest of the OS via COM object, activeX and DLLs, whereas firefox isn't. Windows relies on that to generate HTML previews, and render all the HTML-based content in Windows. That's quite a bit, seeing as Windows' native help format is based on HTML. Asking why you can't remove that is like asking why you can't remove the engine from your car and still drive it around.
I've never had any products on windows screw up the OS to the point of re-installation. Ever. I can't imagine where you even pulled that one from. As for linux, it's a whole lot easier. As most apps have files spanning multiple directories and dependencies across the whole system, it's easy for an errant install to remove (or overwrite) something another app depends on. The sprawling dependency means the system is unstable. You can't deny that - linux's dependencies are a weakness as well as a strength. I'm beginning to think you know even less about linux than I do... ;)
I do have objectivity. I use linux boxes and windows boxes at work. I try to make linux do exactly what I want, and I can't. I go back to it time and time again, when I hear some ground-breaking improvements on slashdot. Believe me, objectivity is one thing I have in spades. I've spent hours and hours installing linux onto PCs, and attempting to get them to function as well as my Windows PC, and to no avail. There simply isn't the support for it. Everything is too disparate, made by too many people with conflicting ideas. That means products don't gel well. That means there are too many "But if you're running [library] x.y.z, do this first" buried deep in a README somewhere. That's fact. I've seen it a thousand times, and I've heard it from friends of mine who are hard-core linux guys.
My windows box is stable. It's secure. It runs every single piece of top-name software I can think of. When I see a piece of hardware, I just install it. I know full well there are FREE drivers to install, which will make it work fine. I can pick up a game o
We're talking about a TROJAN here. You could write one for Linux easily. You could write one for any OS that has a TCP/IP stack and can execute programs. This is clearly not a microsoft-only problem, so stop treating it as such. All you're doing is showing your complete lack of objectivity and reasonable thought when dealing with an article that mentions "microsoft". The /. disease.
grow up, dude. seriously.
Unless your were randomly running strange applications on your car's PocketPC, this won't affect you. It's a trojan. It can happen on ANY OPERATING SYSTEM WITH TCP/IP. Sheesh. Anyway, your car would be running Windows Embedded, which is a completely different product.
People can't even bash microsoft properly these days. But still they try.
Errr. because there are more Windows PDAs out there than Palm ones, and Palm PDAs can't do as much as the windows ones (and so are less apt for trojans, etc.). It's not brain science :)
Actually, they use NT 4. :)
Of course it can't be thrown out the window. Sheesh. Windows PDAs are way more complicated than their Palm equivalents, and with that extra complexity (and power) comes an increased risk of viruses. And, in the PDA world, the largest market share is Windows, so the argument still stands. I guess you'll have to bash microsoft some other way.
And how many shuttles are flying these days? :-P
Have you read about XP embedded? It's a pick-and-choose OS, so you can select exactly what you want. That means no bloat. Absolutely none. Kinda destroys your ill-conceived argument, and shows it really was a rant against Microsoft.
I know you can watch videos and stuff on Linux, but I've had terrible times trying to get various codecs etc. to work. I'm no computer-illiterate fool, either - I regularly set up linux boxes at work for various things (samba3/cups print servers, file servers, routers, etc.), yet it's still hard to install such things. You also don't get the sheer range of codecs and variations available for Windows.
Games. I know you can play games on Linux, but you don't have the selection of games available to Windows users. I also know wine can play many games, but you don't get full-on D3D hardware acceleration. Every layer you add between your desktop and the software you use slows things down. On Windows, there is only D3D.
File structure. Try explaining to your gran what your average linux path means. I've been using linux for years and I still get lost. That's something needlessly complicated (even if you understand it, you have to admit it). Expecting Joe Average to deal with it when he just wants to write up his report for work is asking a bit much. Even if it turns away only one person in 10, that's still 10% of the prospective market denied.
Standardisation. There is none, whatsoever, on linux. Even apps from the same people can look ridiculously different. People don't want to forgive their OS for looking "diverse" by taking comfort in the ideologies of the producers, that matters not to the average user. Windows, however much you hate it, has had a very tight GUI for years. I know you can get themes and styles for the various GUIs on linux, but it doesn't matter how well you paint a bit of poo, it's still a bit of poo. Until there is a tight, pixel-perfect GUI that has hardware acceleration on Linux, it's going to be playing catch-up to Macs and Windows. People who want eye-candy are going to be going elsewhere.
Bloat. Linux is huge. Again, I know there are various distros that have different numbers of CDs with them, and that each CD has lots of different bits of softwre on them, but I don't want that. I want a sub-600-meg install, and that's it. The extra software? I'll choose that myself, and get the latest versions from the manufacturers myself, instead of using which ever version is on the CD. I don't appreciate having to download 4 ISOs to only install 2 ISOs worth on my computer (especially if the same features can be had on windows in less space, which I find quite frequently - Linux installs requiring more space than comparable Windows ones).
I know I'm going to get modded down and flamed and called all-sorts for this post, but I read so much ass on /. about how bad Windows is supposed to be. I'm an open-source developer (and proud of it), but reading all this stuff makes me feel ashamed to be included in the OSS scene. We're supposed to be objective, taking each piece of software at face-value, judging it on its merits, not by what's cool to say about it.
On my windows boxes, I run Apache w/PHP, MySQL, SSH, CVS and all my windows stuff. It's all independent on the system, and there are no dependencies I might break by upgrading one or the other. They all come with graphical installation packages (which, funnily enough, can be run silently over a network, with no interaction), so deploying them is no drama at all.
Breaking. In my experience, when linux breaks, it can take a lot of work getting it right again. With windows, you can just re-install the software that is affected, and you're sailing
That's the cheapest thing I've ever read. Apart from highlighting situations that occur with any software (heck, that would have easily applied to the buying Red Hat, not just windows), you've just pulled things out of your ass. Linux people spouting all that nonsense shows how little about Windows they know before thinking they can bash it. The only thing your post proves is that there is no argument against the parent's post. He hit the nail right on the head, and instead of arguing why Linux is in fact superior, you take potshots at Windows and hope that only linux fanboys read it and feel happy again. Joker.
Another thing - using M$ makes you (and your argument) seem awfully childish. Can't we all use our "big boy" voices here?
So somehow someone guessing that Microsoft has absolutely no QA is judged "insightful"?? I hate to break it to you, but I'm sure there's just as much testing at Microsoft than in your local linux user group. You only make yourself look a little silly when you pull "facts" like that out your ass.
Take solace in the fact that this is slashdot, and those who modded you down probably don't know what NAT means, and are just flexing their mod-muscles in the face of someone who knows better. I agree with you - some ISPs don't want the liability and extra work open IPs cause. I think the stance the company is taking is perfectly understandable. Again, being slashdot, if a company acts in a way that doesn't benefit the /. community in a rapid fashion, there must be something wrong with it, and it should be condemned to the deepest levels of hell, even though it's a sound business idea that might actually be doing a lot of people good.
these mods suck ass.
I knew about the participating on an AD, as I set up a redhat box to be a cups print server on our network. It could authenticate people against the AD using kerberos, and worked well until it got something out of whack and refused to join the network any more. I think it's still a bit buggy :)
I don't mean to be rude, but what's the point of what you're doing? Why do you need linux? It's all eminently possible with windows, and without needing an extra partition and two operating sytems to do the job. I know there are lots of linux zealots who'd use it to scrath their ass if they could, but that's just silly.
There's a great port of OpenSSH I use regularly on my windows boxes - perfectly seamless operation with unix machines. very nice.
I've hit over 100wpm touch-typing. I couldn't keep it going, though - it's tough :-P
You can go on believing the US government even cares about you. Unless you contribute 6 figures to their party every year, you're nothing. Get used to it.
2. Not every time. Ever heard of hit and runs? That's when someone drives recklessly, has an accident, and escapes without getting a ticket. If that's possible, it's even more possible for someone to drive recklessly, and get away with it. That's just plain logic.
3. The information only gets sent to the cops (in fact, they're only even notified) when you have an accident. When you have an accident, you've broken the law. It's that simple. Because of that, you are now the business of the police and the government. It's called society, and by living in it you agree to obide by the rules.
4. Traffic accidents are never black and white. If two cars collide, there will be endless speculation from the people involved as to who caused the problem. Having a black box could show you in the clear, or it could condemn you. Either way, the guilty party (and ONLY the guilty party) gets punished. It's got nothing to do with benevolence. The black boxes are only examined after a crash, and not because you've necessarily done something wrong, but to clear up any doubts about an incident that could have affected anyone on the road in the area. It's society being responsible to those living in it. Hardly something to be scared off. I bet you have a problem with postmen - after all, they're government employees WHO HANDLE YOUR MAIL! They even know where you live! Innocent until proven guilty! so scary!
5. Of course everyone should have insurance. Otherwise, people are put in a position where someone can do something to them, and they are liable to the damages caused by someone else. That's hardly fair. If you crash your car and drive off, there will be evidence for it. That evidence is then compounded by the black box, which provides a complete picture of the accident from your car's perspective. Obviously it's not a legal universal bandaid, but it would clear up so much uncertainty in many road accidents.
6. You've side-stepped my point completely. My point isn't that the government won't do anything bad, but if they are likely to, they need to be changed. If you actually read what I was saying, you would realise that. Bashing on about my supposed trust for everyone and anything is ridiculous. I'm saying that the technology can work flawlessly. Any problem with it would be due to the powers that be, which ultimately we decide who they are. Therefor, any shortcomings are our fault, and should be addressed. Blaming bad people for why good technology fails is just stupid. Do something about the bad people.
And, btw, mod scores on slashdot mean nothing. Bias is everything on here. If it cheers you up or makes you feel loved, then that's cool. I guess libertarians take what they can. ;)