Stallman does seem to only see the world in black and white (or not-free and free in this case). That's why I tend to dismiss most of what I hear from him. His fear mongering is no better that the stuff people complain about companies like Microsoft doing. Microsoft is just a company. They may have many business practices I disagree with. They may even have leadership I more consistently disagree with, but that doesn't mean everything they do is wrong. Just like De Icaza says, "there are great people working for the company, and I know many people inside Microsoft that are steering the company towards being a community citizen." Now I don't personally know people inside Microsoft as De Icaza does, but it's not a stretch to believe that out of those thousands of employees, at least some of them would rather play nice and put out great products. You can't just dismiss everything based on past behavior. Especially for a corporate entity which changes directions more frequently than people do.
I have a Xerox Phaser 6120. It's pretty nice. Just hook it up to my network and any OS I've thrown at it can print. It's been almost 4 years and I still haven't had to buy anything other than paper for it.
I read just yesterday that the rumor is the Wii's replacement will bring it up to par with the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Given that both Microsoft and Sony want this generation to last much longer than your usual console generation, I'm thinking Nintendo will have an opportunity to put out two generations of their consoles in one of their competition's generations. If they manage to convince at least some of those casual players that bought the Wii to upgrade (perhaps through affordable blu-ray player or even more casual appealing games and hardware), they could easily stay ahead of Xbox 360 and PS3 in terms of consoles sold. Granted that was just a rumor, but I think it is a plausible one.
It seems more like they look at what is plugged in and see if it's an iPod or not. iTunes knows how to handle an iPod, what features it has, and how to organize the music on it. iTunes does not know how to handle other hardware. That's where the plug-ins come in. If anyone just pretended that their hardware was an iPod, who do you think people would complain to when it didn't work right? I bet Apple would get a decent sized share of the complaints even though the problem is someone spoofing the iPod hardware without having the exact same features.
"Great, now everyone knows we have the holes and we actually have to fix them. Everything was fine when people just assumed we had a secure system. Now this guy goes and rains on our parade. Let's try to get him to pay for fixing them."
The real thought behind this is more likely that the manager built the sales crew up. It's like hiring a good front office and coaches for a sports team. They will build a good team for you if you have the resources available. Not to mention that most of the sales staff is probably temporary (such as those working through school).
Or it's kind of like portioning out your meals and only eating every few hours or so. Or are we all just addicted to food? Or maybe it's like a parent limiting a teenager's phone time (you know, back before cell phones). It's still a useful tool, but he recognized that it was too easy for him to abuse it.
There are exceptions to every rule, but studies have shown that men and women remember and give directions differently. It pretty much went just like girlintraining said. Men are more likely to use maps and straight directions (first left, second right, etc), whereas women were more likely to use landmarks (left at such and such restaurant, then past the empty parking lot, etc).
Technically this is a computer-brain interface. The device is just using convenient, pre-existing inputs to the brain. The average person considers taste a sense even though it relies heavily on one's sense of smell. So what the difference if this relies on someone's sense of touch?
Upstate NY is horrible for AT&T. I know many people who have switched from AT&T to Verizon (whose coverage is much better here). It all depends on where you are though: city coverage vs rural coverage, which region of the country you are in, even which city. Every provider has areas where they are stronger and weaker than the competition.
"MS getting their claws into education" is a flawed argument. Back in the 90's it was Apple who had a death grip on education. It didn't do much for their market after those people graduated because they would go to work and only see Windows computers.
Is it so bad that fixing a computer is a "dark art"? How many things can the average person fix on their own anyhow? People don't do their own electrical and plumbing work (for the most part). Yet everyone fully expects to be able to control the water coming from the faucet and the electricity powering their stuff. People don't fix their own cars (again, for the most part). Yet everyone fully expects to be able to control their car on the road. If all a person uses their computer for is surfing the web, writing documents, and even the occasional game or two, why do they need an OS where they have to know how to fix and manage everything else? Some distributions, such as Ubuntu, have figured this out. Face it, the only advantage the average person sees in Linux is that it is free and there are plenty of apparent disadvantages (I have to do what to play my new video game?). But then again, Windows and Mac OS X appear free as well since the computers they buy come pre-installed with them.
If we're talking killing directly, how many soldiers in WWII killed more people than Hitler? I'm talking directly, since apparently ordering deaths doesn't count, otherwise Vader would probably win hands down given how high up in command he was and how brutal the Empire was supposed to be.
I agree, the major advantages of assembly for that other 95 percent would be negated by a good C or higher compiler that will probably write more efficient and faster binaries than most programmers could using assembly.
The funny part about fruits and vegetables is that you can get them as cheap as the refined sugar and corn syrup by going to your local farmers market. Not only is it, on average, fresher than in the store, but you're cutting out one or two middle men, avoiding a markup at every step. It's not so much a question of availability as what one would rather eat without considering the health benefits. The poorer a person is, the less likely they are to care about the content of their diet.
High carb diets developed out of the old recommendations for low fat diets. Older studies found that lowering fat intake reduced heart disease. So everyone started recommending a low fat diet. Then obesity and diabetes started to rise. In response, the low carb fad set in. Now it turns out that it was really the saturated and trans fats that were causing spikes in heart disease and refined carbohydrates causing spikes in obesity and diabetes (even those statements are way too simplified). A diet that is somewhat low in carbs (and especially low in refined carbs) and low in saturated and trans fats is what is recommended. That doesn't mean a bland diet, it just means knowing your foods and making more responsible choices.
In truth though, the lack of exercise is killing us just as much as our poorly balanced diets. Losing weight isn't the only indicator of health. Think about it this way: not exercising at all (which is likely for many here on Slashdot) is the total health equivalent of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. I would wager that making some type of exercise a regular part of your routine is just as likely to raise mental acuity and energy levels as eating a proper diet.
COBOL is pretty much anything but dead. There are still new versions of the language being released and still developers being paid to work with legacy systems running it. COBOL may be a language many developers wish was dead, but so long as companies use it, other companies like Micro Focus and IBM will work on new standards and tool sets.
And when it comes to the grandparent's comments about C, how many other low level languages are there out there that would even be considered as a suitable substitute without any of the same issues? We can't just abstract away from the hardware without that abstraction layer being written in something.
I was thinking the same thing. At first I thought he just took the same idea and made it into something that could be sold to the average consumer. Until he can automate the focus control (and making the transition quick), I don't see this doing well.
Go to any school with a decent and (especially) required co-op or internship component in their curriculum. These are the hands-on, training for a real career schools. Universities that train for the real world do exist. Sadly, students don't realize it until they have already graduated though.
Or buy from iTunes or Amazon. Neither one uses DRM for their music purchases anymore (I don't think Amazon ever did). How many major, non-subscription based music stores use DRM for music anymore?
To free AMD up to outsource to other foundries, to allow GlobalFoundries to take on outside customers, to prevent losses in one area from affecting total company health, to allow outside investment in either company where the investor would not be interested in the other area of business...
Slashdot Mirror
Stallman does seem to only see the world in black and white (or not-free and free in this case). That's why I tend to dismiss most of what I hear from him. His fear mongering is no better that the stuff people complain about companies like Microsoft doing. Microsoft is just a company. They may have many business practices I disagree with. They may even have leadership I more consistently disagree with, but that doesn't mean everything they do is wrong. Just like De Icaza says, "there are great people working for the company, and I know many people inside Microsoft that are steering the company towards being a community citizen." Now I don't personally know people inside Microsoft as De Icaza does, but it's not a stretch to believe that out of those thousands of employees, at least some of them would rather play nice and put out great products. You can't just dismiss everything based on past behavior. Especially for a corporate entity which changes directions more frequently than people do.
This can only mean the iPhone is coming to Verizon!
I have a Xerox Phaser 6120. It's pretty nice. Just hook it up to my network and any OS I've thrown at it can print. It's been almost 4 years and I still haven't had to buy anything other than paper for it.
I read just yesterday that the rumor is the Wii's replacement will bring it up to par with the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Given that both Microsoft and Sony want this generation to last much longer than your usual console generation, I'm thinking Nintendo will have an opportunity to put out two generations of their consoles in one of their competition's generations. If they manage to convince at least some of those casual players that bought the Wii to upgrade (perhaps through affordable blu-ray player or even more casual appealing games and hardware), they could easily stay ahead of Xbox 360 and PS3 in terms of consoles sold. Granted that was just a rumor, but I think it is a plausible one.
It seems more like they look at what is plugged in and see if it's an iPod or not. iTunes knows how to handle an iPod, what features it has, and how to organize the music on it. iTunes does not know how to handle other hardware. That's where the plug-ins come in. If anyone just pretended that their hardware was an iPod, who do you think people would complain to when it didn't work right? I bet Apple would get a decent sized share of the complaints even though the problem is someone spoofing the iPod hardware without having the exact same features.
"Great, now everyone knows we have the holes and we actually have to fix them. Everything was fine when people just assumed we had a secure system. Now this guy goes and rains on our parade. Let's try to get him to pay for fixing them."
The real thought behind this is more likely that the manager built the sales crew up. It's like hiring a good front office and coaches for a sports team. They will build a good team for you if you have the resources available. Not to mention that most of the sales staff is probably temporary (such as those working through school).
Or it's kind of like portioning out your meals and only eating every few hours or so. Or are we all just addicted to food? Or maybe it's like a parent limiting a teenager's phone time (you know, back before cell phones). It's still a useful tool, but he recognized that it was too easy for him to abuse it.
There are exceptions to every rule, but studies have shown that men and women remember and give directions differently. It pretty much went just like girlintraining said. Men are more likely to use maps and straight directions (first left, second right, etc), whereas women were more likely to use landmarks (left at such and such restaurant, then past the empty parking lot, etc).
Technically this is a computer-brain interface. The device is just using convenient, pre-existing inputs to the brain. The average person considers taste a sense even though it relies heavily on one's sense of smell. So what the difference if this relies on someone's sense of touch?
Upstate NY is horrible for AT&T. I know many people who have switched from AT&T to Verizon (whose coverage is much better here). It all depends on where you are though: city coverage vs rural coverage, which region of the country you are in, even which city. Every provider has areas where they are stronger and weaker than the competition.
"MS getting their claws into education" is a flawed argument. Back in the 90's it was Apple who had a death grip on education. It didn't do much for their market after those people graduated because they would go to work and only see Windows computers.
Is it so bad that fixing a computer is a "dark art"? How many things can the average person fix on their own anyhow? People don't do their own electrical and plumbing work (for the most part). Yet everyone fully expects to be able to control the water coming from the faucet and the electricity powering their stuff. People don't fix their own cars (again, for the most part). Yet everyone fully expects to be able to control their car on the road. If all a person uses their computer for is surfing the web, writing documents, and even the occasional game or two, why do they need an OS where they have to know how to fix and manage everything else? Some distributions, such as Ubuntu, have figured this out. Face it, the only advantage the average person sees in Linux is that it is free and there are plenty of apparent disadvantages (I have to do what to play my new video game?). But then again, Windows and Mac OS X appear free as well since the computers they buy come pre-installed with them.
Single payer health care with required nutritional counseling.
Why is single payer health care required for the Government to mandate anything? They mandate things for health insurance companies all the time.
If we're talking killing directly, how many soldiers in WWII killed more people than Hitler? I'm talking directly, since apparently ordering deaths doesn't count, otherwise Vader would probably win hands down given how high up in command he was and how brutal the Empire was supposed to be.
I agree, the major advantages of assembly for that other 95 percent would be negated by a good C or higher compiler that will probably write more efficient and faster binaries than most programmers could using assembly.
The funny part about fruits and vegetables is that you can get them as cheap as the refined sugar and corn syrup by going to your local farmers market. Not only is it, on average, fresher than in the store, but you're cutting out one or two middle men, avoiding a markup at every step. It's not so much a question of availability as what one would rather eat without considering the health benefits. The poorer a person is, the less likely they are to care about the content of their diet.
High carb diets developed out of the old recommendations for low fat diets. Older studies found that lowering fat intake reduced heart disease. So everyone started recommending a low fat diet. Then obesity and diabetes started to rise. In response, the low carb fad set in. Now it turns out that it was really the saturated and trans fats that were causing spikes in heart disease and refined carbohydrates causing spikes in obesity and diabetes (even those statements are way too simplified). A diet that is somewhat low in carbs (and especially low in refined carbs) and low in saturated and trans fats is what is recommended. That doesn't mean a bland diet, it just means knowing your foods and making more responsible choices.
In truth though, the lack of exercise is killing us just as much as our poorly balanced diets. Losing weight isn't the only indicator of health. Think about it this way: not exercising at all (which is likely for many here on Slashdot) is the total health equivalent of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. I would wager that making some type of exercise a regular part of your routine is just as likely to raise mental acuity and energy levels as eating a proper diet.
Look at COBOL. It's essentially a dead language
COBOL is pretty much anything but dead. There are still new versions of the language being released and still developers being paid to work with legacy systems running it. COBOL may be a language many developers wish was dead, but so long as companies use it, other companies like Micro Focus and IBM will work on new standards and tool sets.
And when it comes to the grandparent's comments about C, how many other low level languages are there out there that would even be considered as a suitable substitute without any of the same issues? We can't just abstract away from the hardware without that abstraction layer being written in something.
/* This code has been commented out because it causes major bugs in the system. Will fix later. */
It never seems to occur to them that people might be genuinely interested in results that reflect what they actually want.
Sounds like the work of a bad programmer. Who else would take a question from a user and assume they know what the user really wants?
I was thinking the same thing. At first I thought he just took the same idea and made it into something that could be sold to the average consumer. Until he can automate the focus control (and making the transition quick), I don't see this doing well.
Go to any school with a decent and (especially) required co-op or internship component in their curriculum. These are the hands-on, training for a real career schools. Universities that train for the real world do exist. Sadly, students don't realize it until they have already graduated though.
Or maybe they're just looking for a good deal on a car.
So they're stealing our body heat and letting us write agent AI for them too? Geez, what lazy AI we invented.
Or buy from iTunes or Amazon. Neither one uses DRM for their music purchases anymore (I don't think Amazon ever did). How many major, non-subscription based music stores use DRM for music anymore?
To free AMD up to outsource to other foundries, to allow GlobalFoundries to take on outside customers, to prevent losses in one area from affecting total company health, to allow outside investment in either company where the investor would not be interested in the other area of business...