Wikipedia "development" is like the mailing lists of a certain unnamed Linux distro. Thank goodness true direct democracy doesn't exist outside of a few online communities. Because experience shows that it is the opposite of meritocracy. Meritocracy is wherethe best and the brightest quietly run things. Online "communocracy" is where the worst and loudest idiots scream through their petty issues.
or how their employees are morons,... or how they treat their employees like dirt
I think there's a correlation there:-)
Seriously, I know several people who work at Wal-Mart. They tell me that most employees are the run of the mill employee who will never go anywhere. Just any any other retail store, duh. But many people do rise up the ranks, becoming sales managers, department managers, etc. One person I know went from high school dropout working folding clothes, to running an entire store. It may not be as glamorous or well paying as software engineering, but it beats the crap out of their retail competition.
Too bad there are millions of people who actually do get their news from TDS. This is no different from the millions of people who get their news from talk radio, despite talk radio billing itself as commentary and not news.
People get their news from who best validates their world views. That the "reality based community" gets their news from Comedy Central is very revealing of their world view. That they think Stewart and Colbert are funny is every bit as frightening as those people who think Hannity and Limbaugh are erudite.
ut note that we bash the nation and not its citizens who we assume to be largely at odds with their government
Then you should start bashing the citizens, because they are not "largely at odds with their government. There are a few loudmouths who make it seem like we're on the verge of violent revolution to overthrow the Bush administration, but the reality is that most people don't find the current adminitration any better or worse than the last one. In general the US populace supported the Iraqi invasion, they just got a little disillusioned that it's taken so long to get the new Iraq government up to speed. Domestically, Bush as been a big yawn, having done nothing good or bad enough to garner significant praise or outrage.
The US *media*, on the other hand, intensely despises Bush. So if all you know about the US people is what the US media tells you about us, it's no wonder you would think we are "largely at odds" with him.
So please, dispense with the secondhand platitudes and start hating us as individual people as well.
Isn't the UK the nation that has video cameras monitoring the streets? Given it's pervasive CCTV surveillance of citizens, this news would seem like a breath of fresh enlightenment.
p.s. For all you knuckleheads out there, I am not agreeing with this move! I'm only commenting on the irony of the UK bitching about it.
Thank you. RMS and Theo have whipped people up into such a frenzy, that they now think closed source firmware is evil. The real problem is with the drivers. As long as I've got enough specs to load the firmware and write a driver, I'm hunky dory. But once you start putting hardware functionality in the software driver, you're crossing the line.
Except that portable media players that support Ogg are exceedingly rare. iRiver used to, but no more. I was recently in a Microcenter a few months ago, and not one of fifty different media players supported Ogg Vorbis (let alone Ogg Theora). I'm too much of an old fart to understand the obsession with playing videos on tiny one or two inch screens, but I understand it's the current rage. If you want to download an EU broadcast in Ogg Theora directly to your portable player, you're out of luck. Hence my suggestion to use multiple formats.
This was only nine years ago. By "newbie" I meant someone who had computer experience, but not with any Unix.
In some ways, nine years is a LONG time ago. People back then had this strange idea that you didn't have to have the exact same computer at work as you did at home. Of course, all that changed eight and a half years ago...
*NOW* it does. But not back then. I built my current system in Sept. 2003. At that time Linux support for SATA was very spotty. For the two week period I tried to get Linux installed, I was given every excuse in the book why it didn't work. I tried every major distro out there, and several minor. None had SATA enabled on the install CD. For the next couple of months, I would try every new release from a major distro. No luck.
FreeBSD worked out of the box.
FreeBSD doesn't usually get new hardware support before Linux, but in the case of SATA it did. The implementation is also a heck of a lot cleaner than Linux's. SATA is ATA, not SCSI, so its support is in the ATA driver where it belongs.
Hmmm, I had a horrible time with SATA drivers and Linux. They were there, but were not included on any install CDs for quite a long time. On the other hand, FreeBSD installed on SATA drives just fine. My current computer was a single-boot FreeBSD system for a long time, because neither Windows nor Linux would install on it without an unduly painful process.
Back when I was with a Solaris shop, complete newbies could start being productive with godawful CDE in only a couple of days. The idea that people need gooey flashy hardware accelerated desktops with animated paperclips in order to be productive is an absurd myth.
I am going to... address whether or not (IMHO) Linux is ready for the desktop. Additionally, let me preface this by saying that I have used Linux as my sole desktop for PCs since 1994...
Oh the irony. He's going to tell us that Linux isn't ready for the desktop, yet it's been on his desktop since 1994. It may not be ready for Aunt Tillie's desktop, but it certain has been ready for his for a dozen years.
The problem with stupid statements about Linux desktop readiness is that no one ever bothers to define was "desktop ready" means. Or if they do, it involves such a convoluted definition that only Windows can ever ever qualify (for some people, not even even Mac OSX is ready). Reading the parent's post, his definition seems to be "zero bugs in hardware drivers". But by that definition, Windows XP isn't ready for the desktop!
But what the fsck do I know, I don't even use Linux anymore. I've been using FreeBSD on my desktop since 2000.
No one plays with SharePoint... by design. CIOs who choose SharePoint are deliberately and consciously choosing a Windows only homogenous network.
The good news, though, is that switching away from SharePoint is simplicity. If this is an example of Microsoft lock-in, then it's like locking CIOs into a wet paper box.
You have an exalted five digit user id, so you've been hear as long as I have (this is my second account here, my first having been retired). So surely you know what a "karma whore" is. The parent post was a karma whore. Even if it was only his first trick and all he did was a handjob, he's still a karma whore.
The government does not own all of the necessary software to make a voting machine.
The government can simply stipulate that all works it finances in regards to election software be released into the public domain (or simply not get a copyright). I believe this was once standard operating procedure.
But one doesn't need to release all software on the voting machine into the public domain, only the relevant election software written for this purpose. No need to free the linux kernel, for example, it can remain comfortably GPLed.
The modpoint inflation rate is nothing short of astounding. Someone posts a link to the wikipedia page on the FSF... and get's modded informative!
This is Slashdot. As in "News for Nerds who Know What the Free Software Foundation Is." Next you'll be revealing to the world the identity of those perenially mysterious acronyms, GNU, RMS and GPL.
Of course you do! But that's not a reason not to at least look for them or find alternatives.
Freedom doesn't mean your decisions are going to be effortless. Before you can decide whether to take the left or right fork in the road, you first have to get your freaking butt off the road dirt. People who whine that they have no choice but to use Windows should at least have the decency to get off the road so other people stop tripping over them.
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Wikipedia "development" is like the mailing lists of a certain unnamed Linux distro. Thank goodness true direct democracy doesn't exist outside of a few online communities. Because experience shows that it is the opposite of meritocracy. Meritocracy is wherethe best and the brightest quietly run things. Online "communocracy" is where the worst and loudest idiots scream through their petty issues.
or how their employees are morons, ... or how they treat their employees like dirt
:-)
I think there's a correlation there
Seriously, I know several people who work at Wal-Mart. They tell me that most employees are the run of the mill employee who will never go anywhere. Just any any other retail store, duh. But many people do rise up the ranks, becoming sales managers, department managers, etc. One person I know went from high school dropout working folding clothes, to running an entire store. It may not be as glamorous or well paying as software engineering, but it beats the crap out of their retail competition.
It in no way purports itself as a news station.
Too bad there are millions of people who actually do get their news from TDS. This is no different from the millions of people who get their news from talk radio, despite talk radio billing itself as commentary and not news.
People get their news from who best validates their world views. That the "reality based community" gets their news from Comedy Central is very revealing of their world view. That they think Stewart and Colbert are funny is every bit as frightening as those people who think Hannity and Limbaugh are erudite.
ut note that we bash the nation and not its citizens who we assume to be largely at odds with their government
Then you should start bashing the citizens, because they are not "largely at odds with their government. There are a few loudmouths who make it seem like we're on the verge of violent revolution to overthrow the Bush administration, but the reality is that most people don't find the current adminitration any better or worse than the last one. In general the US populace supported the Iraqi invasion, they just got a little disillusioned that it's taken so long to get the new Iraq government up to speed. Domestically, Bush as been a big yawn, having done nothing good or bad enough to garner significant praise or outrage.
The US *media*, on the other hand, intensely despises Bush. So if all you know about the US people is what the US media tells you about us, it's no wonder you would think we are "largely at odds" with him.
So please, dispense with the secondhand platitudes and start hating us as individual people as well.
And you can call C and C++ libraries seamlessly.
Really? Not according to their FAQ. C yes. C++ no. Otherwise I would be in the process of switching over as we speak.
do you object to the police patrolling in public places?
No I don't. I'm only stating the irony of the situation.
Isn't the UK the nation that has video cameras monitoring the streets? Given it's pervasive CCTV surveillance of citizens, this news would seem like a breath of fresh enlightenment.
p.s. For all you knuckleheads out there, I am not agreeing with this move! I'm only commenting on the irony of the UK bitching about it.
Don't worry about it. I'm sure Margaret was much more masculine than Matt ever was...
This is NOT the problem.
Thank you. RMS and Theo have whipped people up into such a frenzy, that they now think closed source firmware is evil. The real problem is with the drivers. As long as I've got enough specs to load the firmware and write a driver, I'm hunky dory. But once you start putting hardware functionality in the software driver, you're crossing the line.
Except that portable media players that support Ogg are exceedingly rare. iRiver used to, but no more. I was recently in a Microcenter a few months ago, and not one of fifty different media players supported Ogg Vorbis (let alone Ogg Theora). I'm too much of an old fart to understand the obsession with playing videos on tiny one or two inch screens, but I understand it's the current rage. If you want to download an EU broadcast in Ogg Theora directly to your portable player, you're out of luck. Hence my suggestion to use multiple formats.
p.s. In terms of audio players, Cowon/a? supports Ogg Vorbis. They're hard to find in stores, but you can buy them online. I requested and got an iAudio6 for Christmas. Works out of the box with Ogg Vorbis and any OS.
Better yet, get rid of ALL problems by not offering ANY downloads!
Why limit yourself to just one format? Offer both WMV *AND* Ogg Theora!
This was only nine years ago. By "newbie" I meant someone who had computer experience, but not with any Unix.
In some ways, nine years is a LONG time ago. People back then had this strange idea that you didn't have to have the exact same computer at work as you did at home. Of course, all that changed eight and a half years ago...
*NOW* it does. But not back then. I built my current system in Sept. 2003. At that time Linux support for SATA was very spotty. For the two week period I tried to get Linux installed, I was given every excuse in the book why it didn't work. I tried every major distro out there, and several minor. None had SATA enabled on the install CD. For the next couple of months, I would try every new release from a major distro. No luck.
FreeBSD worked out of the box.
FreeBSD doesn't usually get new hardware support before Linux, but in the case of SATA it did. The implementation is also a heck of a lot cleaner than Linux's. SATA is ATA, not SCSI, so its support is in the ATA driver where it belongs.
Hmmm, I had a horrible time with SATA drivers and Linux. They were there, but were not included on any install CDs for quite a long time. On the other hand, FreeBSD installed on SATA drives just fine. My current computer was a single-boot FreeBSD system for a long time, because neither Windows nor Linux would install on it without an unduly painful process.
Back when I was with a Solaris shop, complete newbies could start being productive with godawful CDE in only a couple of days. The idea that people need gooey flashy hardware accelerated desktops with animated paperclips in order to be productive is an absurd myth.
I am going to ... address whether or not (IMHO) Linux is ready for the desktop. Additionally, let me preface this by saying that I have used Linux as my sole desktop for PCs since 1994...
Oh the irony. He's going to tell us that Linux isn't ready for the desktop, yet it's been on his desktop since 1994. It may not be ready for Aunt Tillie's desktop, but it certain has been ready for his for a dozen years.
The problem with stupid statements about Linux desktop readiness is that no one ever bothers to define was "desktop ready" means. Or if they do, it involves such a convoluted definition that only Windows can ever ever qualify (for some people, not even even Mac OSX is ready). Reading the parent's post, his definition seems to be "zero bugs in hardware drivers". But by that definition, Windows XP isn't ready for the desktop!
But what the fsck do I know, I don't even use Linux anymore. I've been using FreeBSD on my desktop since 2000.
No one plays with SharePoint... by design. CIOs who choose SharePoint are deliberately and consciously choosing a Windows only homogenous network.
The good news, though, is that switching away from SharePoint is simplicity. If this is an example of Microsoft lock-in, then it's like locking CIOs into a wet paper box.
You have an exalted five digit user id, so you've been hear as long as I have (this is my second account here, my first having been retired). So surely you know what a "karma whore" is. The parent post was a karma whore. Even if it was only his first trick and all he did was a handjob, he's still a karma whore.
The government does not own all of the necessary software to make a voting machine.
The government can simply stipulate that all works it finances in regards to election software be released into the public domain (or simply not get a copyright). I believe this was once standard operating procedure.
But one doesn't need to release all software on the voting machine into the public domain, only the relevant election software written for this purpose. No need to free the linux kernel, for example, it can remain comfortably GPLed.
If they weren't an activist organization until this year, what the heck were they the previous twenty four years?
The modpoint inflation rate is nothing short of astounding. Someone posts a link to the wikipedia page on the FSF... and get's modded informative!
This is Slashdot. As in "News for Nerds who Know What the Free Software Foundation Is." Next you'll be revealing to the world the identity of those perenially mysterious acronyms, GNU, RMS and GPL.
Of course you do! But that's not a reason not to at least look for them or find alternatives.
Freedom doesn't mean your decisions are going to be effortless. Before you can decide whether to take the left or right fork in the road, you first have to get your freaking butt off the road dirt. People who whine that they have no choice but to use Windows should at least have the decency to get off the road so other people stop tripping over them.
But you can switch to apps that do NOT require Windows first.
Why? The government owns it, it can release it into the public domain.