I am using Beagle and/or Google Desktop for exactly this task. Both are able to index PDFs and search them. Unfortunately, they will not deal with PDFs directly from scanner (large images), you need to process those with OCR first. I believe that both Beagle and Google Desktop are able to search the metadata too, so even for image documents you can still search authors and titles if you are diligent and fill them in when the document is scanned. This needs a bit of discipline and insight into how the data are actually stored, but if you are willing to invest the time, it works pretty well.
There are other tools, Strigi comes to mind, but that was too unstable for me. I do not know about commercial apps doing this - there are probably some, but I am a Linux user so I need not to apply there... Then there are document management systems, but I think that is an overkill for your needs.
Unfortunately, you are completely wrong here. Finnish belongs to the Ugro-finnish language family, its closest relative in Europe being Hungarian. Even Swedes, Danes and Norwegians do not understand Finnish, despite living in the same region and Swedish, Danish and Norwegian being mutually intelligible for the most part.
Finnish is not even close to English, period.
I happen to develop software for living and recently I am also teaching at an University at both undergrad and graduate levels. The students often ask which tools are we going to use and which ones should they learn. And I am always telling them - "the right tool for the job". If you want to learn tools, do not go to school, get a training course. The school is there to teach you the concepts behind and how to think. Focusing on the tools is like a carpenter learning only to use a hammer and screwdriver but not how to actually build anything. Also, the carpenters have more tools than just a hammer and screwdrivers - so do expect to have to learn more than the standard C/C++/Java/C#, they are not one-size-fits-all tools. I have honestly stopped counting the languages I had to learn - they are only tools to get the job done, and you learn a new one when it does the job better than something you knew already.
In the programming case - learn your theory - principles of computation, logic, data structures. Programming languages are not important, if you are any good, you will be able to pick a new one up in a few days/weeks at most. However, that assumes that you know how to learn and how they work. Not to mention that a particular tool or software may be obsolete in a few years, then what? If you have learned only how to "push buttons", you are screwed, your skills are now worthless. Nobody may hear about C++/Java/C# in 10 years, but you do plan to be working in the field for longer than that, don't you? So you need to be able to adapt and keep learning - the principles will be similar, only the tools may be different.
Also, as many pointed out, do not expect to be able to write an enterprise application right out of school. Nobody does that. The school gives you the foundations, but you need practical experience. And that comes only with time, there is no school that can give you that. Take on internships, part-time jobs, work on OSS projects, volunteer - all that helps to build up your skills. I was lucky to have a part time job at a small software company during my studies (I needed the money to support myself). That company did things "by the book" - proper analysis, everything documented, proper design. At the same time that I was learning software engineering in school, I had a hands-on tour de force in a real enterprise solving real problems using the methods I had just heard about, under supervision of really good engineers. That has helped me immensely - you cannot pick up all that knowledge from the courses alone.
Folks, I do wonder when someone realizes that OpenGL is not only games. The only people really "furious" are some game developers in few posts on an OpenGL forum. However, please, do realize that games are typically sold for 6 months and supported for 1 year and 99% on a single platform (Win/XBox). Very few things are developed as cross-platform - and it is NOT because of OpenGL, more like commercial realities (cross-platform development is hard and doesn't make a lot of sense for ~2-3% of the market, especially for an app that will be sold for one season).
Professional apps (CAD/simulators/visualizations...) make up the majority of the OpenGL market and they have to be supported for decades (no, military or airlines do not buy a new training system every two years...)
So breaking compatibility is deal breaker. This is exactly what OpenGL 3.0 is about. I am developing OpenGL applications for a decade now and all are still running and being used. How many 10 year old games can you actually get working today? God forbid - on Vista? That is the difference.
Also, the "newest features not supported by OpenGL" - how many "newest features" are your typical games actually using? Perhaps one or two and they are optional, because the game must run even on not bleeding-edge hardware (how many games are DX10-only? - commercial suicide...)
So to wrap this up - the title is EXTREMELY misleading and making up a storm where one doesn't exist.
I guess that you need to be educated that free has two meanings and not only free as in beer. What if the software doesn't run in his/her computer (e.g. because he is running Linux and not Windows)? Should he buy also Windows *just to file taxes*?
This isn't virtual reality at all. It is research of impact of animated/interactive ad and one static ad on a web site. Of course, the animated ad/product presentation can give you extra information which you will remember. If the ad is designed to show/sell more than there really is, you get false memories since you are not interacting with the real thing, only its idealized avatar (we are speaking about marketing, remember - you will not present the bad things...). Not exactly sky shattering research here...
This was a pretty short-lived venture with Suse and stopped very soon after the announcement - OpenLinux (aka SCO affair) and T22 are quite a few years obsolete.
Sorry to break it to you, but IBM *never* supported Linux on their Thinkpad laptop line. They did on everything else (desktops, servers) but not on the laptops. They have got a lot of flak for this but this never changed. However, they were "tolerant" to Linux on their laptops to a degree - used well supported hardware and they didn't send you to reinstall Windows before even attempting to troubleshoot your problem. I had twice hw problem on my Thinkpad (once dead fan, second time mainboard) and the question of Linux being on the laptop never came into play.
I do not think that this policy will change (Lenovo explicitly said so), but do not expect explicit Linux support.
If you want supported/preloaded Linux on a laptop you need to look elsewhere:(
Actually, "Unsermensch" is nonsense - it means literally "our man". "Untermensch" means "lower/below man" or something like that - meaning somebody of lower class. Nazis used this term for Jews and everybody of non-Arian race in general.
It is 6 MONTHs not years. Please, read the document itself, not crap some journo copied from who-knows-where. And no - communication is not logged. Only the metadata are. And these always were (security, troubleshooting, etc.), only now you have to keep them for at least 6 months, in case the police will want them.
Even the small ISP is keeping these logs for most of the services they provide anyway, because - surprise - they are needed for billing and abuse investigations. What is in the air and not really clear is how e.g. P2P or VOIP connections are going to be tracked - e.g. if packets of a call are only transiting through an ISP, does he have to log them? He may not even be aware that there is such call, as e.g. Skype is encrypted and the ports used vary. This will have to be most likely worked out at a local state level, when the directive will be implemented in local legislatures.
If you read the directive, you will discover in article 4:
Categories of data to be retained
data necessary to trace and identify the source of a communication;
data necessary to trace and identify the destination of a communication;
data necessary to identify the date, time and duration of a communication;
data necessary to identify the type of communication;
data necessary to identify the communication device or what purports to be the
communication device;
data necessary to identify the location of mobile communication equipment.
I.e. it is NOT REQUIRED (and illegal unless done with the consent of the courts) to retain content of the telephone calls or e-mail. Only connection logs and location data for cellular networks have to be retained.
FYI, these data are routinely kept anyway for monitoring and troubleshooting purposes (ever heard about logs?), what the directive does is that it sets formal framework for how long and which data need to be kept to simplify life of the police - internet-related data (IPs, usernames, e-mail addresses, login/logout times, etc.) for 6 months, telephony-related stuff (telephone numbers, cellphone location data) for 1 year. Otherwise it may be difficult to trace a call or internet connection (e.g. hacking attempt), if every ISP on the way has different data retention policy (as it is now).
So no need to put on your tinfoil hats yet. Of course, I would prefer to work without this sort of surveilance in place, on the other hand it is a necessary tradeoff for crime fighting (not only terrorism - think viruses, scams, phishing, credit card fraud, etc.)
Here in Switzerland I was asked to show my passport (I am not Swiss) and my Swiss work permit which contains my official address. Back home in Slovakia it was the same - we were asked to provide the ID, which also contains the address. Made-up address without corresponding ID is not accepted. I guess that this is the same everywhere where you have some soft of country-wide ID (AFAIK, that is exactly what you do not have in the UK yet).
Stolen phones - that's completely another matter. Such phone doesn't even have to be pre-paid, but you have other problems - e.g. if the phone was reported stolen, it could be tracked/disabled by the operator, etc. Not to mention the trouble, if you get caught using it:(
And equally rabid American comments from people who forgot to realize that civilized world doesn't end at Pacific or Atlantic shores of the U.S.
I really do wonder what people want to achieve by this pissing contest of insulting each other. The original network may have been developed by DARPA and U.S. universities, but internet in today's sense would not exists and have the importance that it has without the international participation. Compare that with the original closed networks of e.g. AOL or Bitnet or Compuserve (if you even remember what it was like). However the governance of the network is still (mainly for historical reasons) in the hands of one country, even though others are contributing at least an equal or even larger share than U.S (remember, internet is not only the English-speaking part hosted in the U.S.). This is the problem.
The fundamental issue is that the internet as we know it may stop to exist because of political decision. It is not an attempt to usurp control from the U.S., however ICANN was source of too many controversies in the past and especially the non-American networks were always getting the short end of the stick - guess why. It is used as a club to stifle the competition by the large American network operators, e.g. Verizon. Why would they allow somebody else to operate a root nameserver? They could lose the very profitable monopoly for doing this. Of course that they would block any attempt at doing so through ICANN or lobbying in Congress.
Add a fundamentalist administration which pulls out strawmen such as China or North Korea being able to control internet and in the name of democracy the basic democratic principle of fairness gets trampled. This "patriotic" flag-waving has of course nothing to do with the real issues, but it gets presented as a reason why not to do anything to change status quo (and upset the profitable business of the large telcos).
This is not that simple anymore - in the most European countries, even if you buy pre-paid phone or just the SIM card for a GSM phone, you have to register it with the operator. Then your ID, address, date of birth and few other things are collected and kept on file. Without this the phone will not be activated and it is illegal to operate it. This change happened after 9/11 when exactly this scheme was discovered - criminals using pre-paid disposable phones. I remember some arrests here in Switzerland in connection with this few years ago.
Even people who owned a pre-paid phone before this went into effect were asked to register the phones (provide personal info) or face the phone being blocked.
Not that the *corporate* support is any better - we are paying for it and whenever there is a problem we get it always fixed faster ourselves than waiting for DELL rep to even pick up the phone. I was getting punted from one tech to another for three days once before we even got the right guy. Then he asked me "to run diagnostics" and *hung up* on me without even asking what the problem is:(
When we complained about this, they asked us to buy "golden" support (aka "you are getting crap for your money, so you have to pay more to get anything better"). OK, make an offer. Yeah,... We got it - some idiot sales rep. forgot to delete the quoted replies from the mail as it ping-ponged between their salesmen. The best part was an exorbitant price for the support and the attached comment: "Let them bleed!". I have forwarded this to the IT dept. head and few weeks later DELL somehow failed in the bid for equipping full new CompSci building (~ 100 servers, 1-2k desktops, routers, cabling...):)
The best part is that this happened at a rather large university (over 10k PC installed, DELL is major supplier and we are key account with them). And this was prevailing experience with them. If they treat large customers like this, then I wonder how home users are getting treated (*shudder*).
It is amazing how many people do not get the difference between free as in beer and free as in freedom and immediately pull out this "explanation" or "argument" why something isn't free.
Slashdotters are not stupid and you do not have to lecture them about this, especially when you have misunderstood the point.
Of course, that's true. However most clock generators do not use crystals with exactly 200MHz frequency for various reasons, e.g. the ability to do an integral frequency division for driving different hardware. I didn't express it in the best way, agreed.
E.g. a well known crystal for MCS'51 family of microcontrollers has a frequency of 11.5962 (I do not remember the exact number) or so MHz instead of more logical 12MHz - the reason has to do with how clock for the serial port is divided. This weird frequency has the nice property of closely matching for most common baud rates (2k4, 9k6, 19k2, etc.). 12MHz wouldn't work there, the errors would be too large.
Another example is my Centrino CPU - it is labeled as 1700MHz, but actually runs at 1694.780MHz.
I suspect that the whole ASUS nonsense is exactly a case like this.
Folks, do you realize that the manufacturing tolerances of the oscilators and crystals driving various bits and pieces of your machines are in the range of 1-2 MHz for every 100MHz oscilator? Obviously not.
It is completely normal to have an oscilator labeled as 200MHz (e.g. driving FSB) which has real frequency (measured) of e.g. 199.8MHz or 202MHz. That is all in tolerance, because - surprise - the exact frequency doesn't really matter for this application. What matters is stability of the frequency, that's why a crystal oscillator is used in the first place. The frequency has to be in the range permitted by the chip maker's spec and you have to be careful if you need to divide the clock somewhere to have integral ratios, but whether it is a bit higher or lower makes really no difference.
So all this brouhaha is bull - the difference between the set 201MHz and real 203MHz could very well be just that that the machine cannot set arbitrary frequency (hint - integral frequency division..) so it sets it to the nearest integral value possible.
Of course, an evil conspiracy by ASUS is an easier explanation instead of using your own brain.
MDKKDM is at least one year obsolete and Mandriva (former Mandrake) uses standard KDM now. So do not complain about lack of standardization when you opt to use unsupported and obsolete software.
Well, it is not really - if you just switch the system without understanding *why* there is a problem in the first place, you will get the same mess sooner or later. OpenBSD is not a silver bullet.
This is a common problem with security issues - "I will just buy/install a gizmo X which makes my computer/network/company secure and I am fine." It is the same as buying a new car, because "the old one stopped running", without realizing that you have to refill the gas tank.
In the end the only people which you made secure are the vendors - of the security tools and the cars:) Security is not a one-time thing, it is a process and most people do not realize this.
This guy is absolutely clueless about the basic security principles and even makes a fool of himself in public by showing how much wiser he is than the generations of researchers and engineers which established them:(
I would expect a Linux company CEO to know better than this or at least have few smarter engineers to hit him with a cluestick when necessary.
Even Microsoft learned that running as root is wrong and causes tons of problems. Now a Linux distributor comes preaching the opposite? Unbelievable...
interoperable (i.e. no DRM-encumbered, single-device only)
reasonable priced and easy to buy legally (no "give us your first kid" kind EULAs)
music, then they wouldn't need DRM or DMCA or whatever to protect their copyrights.
99% of the people are not criminals by default and if I am able to buy legally what I want (no, that Coke/Pepsi cobranded top 40 shit doesn't count), I will not go out of my way to pirate it.
This is what those folks do not get. Look at the success Apple had, even though their stuff is still DRM-encumbered.
And to really nail it - the DRM-re-encoding scheme on the Sony's player is ridiculous - if I have the normal, non-DRM mp3 file, why do they think that I will share the crippled one from their device? That simply doesn't make much sense to me. If I really wanted, I can as well put the clean mp3 file on one of these cheap USB sticks and share it in much easier way than the whole non-sense with the Sony player.
Simply put, if you make the scheme cripple the usage of the device, you have lost the customer. Nobody will buy your junk when there is cheaper and better stuff available. The mp3-player is not there to protect the copyrights of whoever, it is there to play music in the first place!
Well, this is a bit biased because I am Python coder as well (apart from doing C/C++, Lisp, Java and what comes).
I wonder since when the talent and maturity of the software author is judged based on the language they use? So the loads of crappy and buggy C/C++ software do not matter and their authors are mature and talented just because it is written in a statically typed non-scripting real language? You do not mean that seriously, do you ?
I guess that you judge also the drivers using the same method - everybody driving a SMART or anything smaller than Hummer is an incompetent loser, because he is not talented enough to drive a "real" car!
Slashdot Mirror
There are other tools, Strigi comes to mind, but that was too unstable for me. I do not know about commercial apps doing this - there are probably some, but I am a Linux user so I need not to apply there... Then there are document management systems, but I think that is an overkill for your needs.
Unfortunately, you are completely wrong here. Finnish belongs to the Ugro-finnish language family, its closest relative in Europe being Hungarian. Even Swedes, Danes and Norwegians do not understand Finnish, despite living in the same region and Swedish, Danish and Norwegian being mutually intelligible for the most part. Finnish is not even close to English, period.
I happen to develop software for living and recently I am also teaching at an University at both undergrad and graduate levels. The students often ask which tools are we going to use and which ones should they learn. And I am always telling them - "the right tool for the job". If you want to learn tools, do not go to school, get a training course. The school is there to teach you the concepts behind and how to think. Focusing on the tools is like a carpenter learning only to use a hammer and screwdriver but not how to actually build anything. Also, the carpenters have more tools than just a hammer and screwdrivers - so do expect to have to learn more than the standard C/C++/Java/C#, they are not one-size-fits-all tools. I have honestly stopped counting the languages I had to learn - they are only tools to get the job done, and you learn a new one when it does the job better than something you knew already.
In the programming case - learn your theory - principles of computation, logic, data structures. Programming languages are not important, if you are any good, you will be able to pick a new one up in a few days/weeks at most. However, that assumes that you know how to learn and how they work. Not to mention that a particular tool or software may be obsolete in a few years, then what? If you have learned only how to "push buttons", you are screwed, your skills are now worthless. Nobody may hear about C++/Java/C# in 10 years, but you do plan to be working in the field for longer than that, don't you? So you need to be able to adapt and keep learning - the principles will be similar, only the tools may be different.
Also, as many pointed out, do not expect to be able to write an enterprise application right out of school. Nobody does that. The school gives you the foundations, but you need practical experience. And that comes only with time, there is no school that can give you that. Take on internships, part-time jobs, work on OSS projects, volunteer - all that helps to build up your skills. I was lucky to have a part time job at a small software company during my studies (I needed the money to support myself). That company did things "by the book" - proper analysis, everything documented, proper design. At the same time that I was learning software engineering in school, I had a hands-on tour de force in a real enterprise solving real problems using the methods I had just heard about, under supervision of really good engineers. That has helped me immensely - you cannot pick up all that knowledge from the courses alone.
Professional apps (CAD/simulators/visualizations...) make up the majority of the OpenGL market and they have to be supported for decades (no, military or airlines do not buy a new training system every two years ...)
So breaking compatibility is deal breaker. This is exactly what OpenGL 3.0 is about. I am developing OpenGL applications for a decade now and all are still running and being used. How many 10 year old games can you actually get working today? God forbid - on Vista? That is the difference.
Also, the "newest features not supported by OpenGL" - how many "newest features" are your typical games actually using? Perhaps one or two and they are optional, because the game must run even on not bleeding-edge hardware (how many games are DX10-only? - commercial suicide ...)
So to wrap this up - the title is EXTREMELY misleading and making up a storm where one doesn't exist.
I guess that you need to be educated that free has two meanings and not only free as in beer. What if the software doesn't run in his/her computer (e.g. because he is running Linux and not Windows)? Should he buy also Windows *just to file taxes*?
This isn't virtual reality at all. It is research of impact of animated/interactive ad and one static ad on a web site. Of course, the animated ad/product presentation can give you extra information which you will remember. If the ad is designed to show/sell more than there really is, you get false memories since you are not interacting with the real thing, only its idealized avatar (we are speaking about marketing, remember - you will not present the bad things ...). Not exactly sky shattering research here ...
This was a pretty short-lived venture with Suse and stopped very soon after the announcement - OpenLinux (aka SCO affair) and T22 are quite a few years obsolete.
I do not think that this policy will change (Lenovo explicitly said so), but do not expect explicit Linux support.
If you want supported/preloaded Linux on a laptop you need to look elsewhere :(
Actually, "Unsermensch" is nonsense - it means literally "our man". "Untermensch" means "lower/below man" or something like that - meaning somebody of lower class. Nazis used this term for Jews and everybody of non-Arian race in general.
Even the small ISP is keeping these logs for most of the services they provide anyway, because - surprise - they are needed for billing and abuse investigations. What is in the air and not really clear is how e.g. P2P or VOIP connections are going to be tracked - e.g. if packets of a call are only transiting through an ISP, does he have to log them? He may not even be aware that there is such call, as e.g. Skype is encrypted and the ports used vary. This will have to be most likely worked out at a local state level, when the directive will be implemented in local legislatures.
Categories of data to be retained
I.e. it is NOT REQUIRED (and illegal unless done with the consent of the courts) to retain content of the telephone calls or e-mail. Only connection logs and location data for cellular networks have to be retained.
FYI, these data are routinely kept anyway for monitoring and troubleshooting purposes (ever heard about logs?), what the directive does is that it sets formal framework for how long and which data need to be kept to simplify life of the police - internet-related data (IPs, usernames, e-mail addresses, login/logout times, etc.) for 6 months, telephony-related stuff (telephone numbers, cellphone location data) for 1 year. Otherwise it may be difficult to trace a call or internet connection (e.g. hacking attempt), if every ISP on the way has different data retention policy (as it is now).
So no need to put on your tinfoil hats yet. Of course, I would prefer to work without this sort of surveilance in place, on the other hand it is a necessary tradeoff for crime fighting (not only terrorism - think viruses, scams, phishing, credit card fraud, etc.)
This is a troll intended to harass a crooked store from this story. Has nothing to do with Linux migration at all.
Stolen phones - that's completely another matter. Such phone doesn't even have to be pre-paid, but you have other problems - e.g. if the phone was reported stolen, it could be tracked/disabled by the operator, etc. Not to mention the trouble, if you get caught using it :(
I really do wonder what people want to achieve by this pissing contest of insulting each other. The original network may have been developed by DARPA and U.S. universities, but internet in today's sense would not exists and have the importance that it has without the international participation. Compare that with the original closed networks of e.g. AOL or Bitnet or Compuserve (if you even remember what it was like). However the governance of the network is still (mainly for historical reasons) in the hands of one country, even though others are contributing at least an equal or even larger share than U.S (remember, internet is not only the English-speaking part hosted in the U.S.). This is the problem.
The fundamental issue is that the internet as we know it may stop to exist because of political decision. It is not an attempt to usurp control from the U.S., however ICANN was source of too many controversies in the past and especially the non-American networks were always getting the short end of the stick - guess why. It is used as a club to stifle the competition by the large American network operators, e.g. Verizon. Why would they allow somebody else to operate a root nameserver? They could lose the very profitable monopoly for doing this. Of course that they would block any attempt at doing so through ICANN or lobbying in Congress.
Add a fundamentalist administration which pulls out strawmen such as China or North Korea being able to control internet and in the name of democracy the basic democratic principle of fairness gets trampled. This "patriotic" flag-waving has of course nothing to do with the real issues, but it gets presented as a reason why not to do anything to change status quo (and upset the profitable business of the large telcos).
Even people who owned a pre-paid phone before this went into effect were asked to register the phones (provide personal info) or face the phone being blocked.
When we complained about this, they asked us to buy "golden" support (aka "you are getting crap for your money, so you have to pay more to get anything better"). OK, make an offer. Yeah, ... We got it - some idiot sales rep. forgot to delete the quoted replies from the mail as it ping-ponged between their salesmen. The best part was an exorbitant price for the support and the attached comment: "Let them bleed!". I have forwarded this to the IT dept. head and few weeks later DELL somehow failed in the bid for equipping full new CompSci building (~ 100 servers, 1-2k desktops, routers, cabling ...) :)
The best part is that this happened at a rather large university (over 10k PC installed, DELL is major supplier and we are key account with them). And this was prevailing experience with them. If they treat large customers like this, then I wonder how home users are getting treated (*shudder*).
An internet myth: Snopes
Slashdotters are not stupid and you do not have to lecture them about this, especially when you have misunderstood the point.
E.g. a well known crystal for MCS'51 family of microcontrollers has a frequency of 11.5962 (I do not remember the exact number) or so MHz instead of more logical 12MHz - the reason has to do with how clock for the serial port is divided. This weird frequency has the nice property of closely matching for most common baud rates (2k4, 9k6, 19k2, etc.). 12MHz wouldn't work there, the errors would be too large.
Another example is my Centrino CPU - it is labeled as 1700MHz, but actually runs at 1694.780MHz.
I suspect that the whole ASUS nonsense is exactly a case like this.
It is completely normal to have an oscilator labeled as 200MHz (e.g. driving FSB) which has real frequency (measured) of e.g. 199.8MHz or 202MHz. That is all in tolerance, because - surprise - the exact frequency doesn't really matter for this application. What matters is stability of the frequency, that's why a crystal oscillator is used in the first place. The frequency has to be in the range permitted by the chip maker's spec and you have to be careful if you need to divide the clock somewhere to have integral ratios, but whether it is a bit higher or lower makes really no difference.
So all this brouhaha is bull - the difference between the set 201MHz and real 203MHz could very well be just that that the machine cannot set arbitrary frequency (hint - integral frequency division ..) so it sets it to the nearest integral value possible.
Of course, an evil conspiracy by ASUS is an easier explanation instead of using your own brain.
MDKKDM is at least one year obsolete and Mandriva (former Mandrake) uses standard KDM now. So do not complain about lack of standardization when you opt to use unsupported and obsolete software.
This is a common problem with security issues - "I will just buy/install a gizmo X which makes my computer/network/company secure and I am fine." It is the same as buying a new car, because "the old one stopped running", without realizing that you have to refill the gas tank.
In the end the only people which you made secure are the vendors - of the security tools and the cars :) Security is not a one-time thing, it is a process and most people do not realize this.
RUN!
This guy is absolutely clueless about the basic security principles and even makes a fool of himself in public by showing how much wiser he is than the generations of researchers and engineers which established them :(
I would expect a Linux company CEO to know better than this or at least have few smarter engineers to hit him with a cluestick when necessary.
Even Microsoft learned that running as root is wrong and causes tons of problems. Now a Linux distributor comes preaching the opposite? Unbelievable ...
music, then they wouldn't need DRM or DMCA or whatever to protect their copyrights.
99% of the people are not criminals by default and if I am able to buy legally what I want (no, that Coke/Pepsi cobranded top 40 shit doesn't count), I will not go out of my way to pirate it.
This is what those folks do not get. Look at the success Apple had, even though their stuff is still DRM-encumbered.
And to really nail it - the DRM-re-encoding scheme on the Sony's player is ridiculous - if I have the normal, non-DRM mp3 file, why do they think that I will share the crippled one from their device? That simply doesn't make much sense to me. If I really wanted, I can as well put the clean mp3 file on one of these cheap USB sticks and share it in much easier way than the whole non-sense with the Sony player.
Simply put, if you make the scheme cripple the usage of the device, you have lost the customer. Nobody will buy your junk when there is cheaper and better stuff available. The mp3-player is not there to protect the copyrights of whoever, it is there to play music in the first place!
I wonder since when the talent and maturity of the software author is judged based on the language they use? So the loads of crappy and buggy C/C++ software do not matter and their authors are mature and talented just because it is written in a statically typed non-scripting real language? You do not mean that seriously, do you ?
I guess that you judge also the drivers using the same method - everybody driving a SMART or anything smaller than Hummer is an incompetent loser, because he is not talented enough to drive a "real" car!
What a load of crap!