I can't pick up stuff in a store and walk out without paying, it's just plain wrong. And in exactly the same way, my employer can't get work done without paying. Just doesn't happen. You want someone to work for you, you pay, and if you want them to work overtime you pay more.
It's not an optional thing, paying for what you get.
"The main thing I like about DSL is the persistent connection. If I need an internet resource, I can grab it quickly...without having to wait for the modem."
So are modems really... they connect to the internet when you turn the computer on, and redial automatically whenever they're disconnected.
Plus, that means that people can't phone you (yes I know people who turn their modems on at dinnertime so they can't be phoned)
"For example, yet another lawsuit against the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant (what is this the tenth, twentieth, thirtieth?)."
Quote of the day:
"On Monday [when this was written], an earthquake shook the foundations of Diablo Canyon nuclear power station in California. This plant, if it had been built as originally planned, would likely have failed on Monday, likely contaminating hundreds of miles of pacific coastline with deadly radiation.
Thank God the environmentallist wackos were there, in the 1970's, to halt construction on this plant, and force PG&E to redesign the plant so that it could withstand a 7.0 direct on it's location."
First, figure out how to deal with the fraudsters and spammers and cheats.
Then figure out how the system will work when 80% of the people involved and 90% of the systems involved are cheating (a.k.a. google and P2P fileshares)
Apparently they're British and European. There was an investagative TV program a few weeks ago, and the Nigerian spammers were operating out of Amsterdam and London, although with plenty of people moving around New York and other US cities also. They needed to meet with a lot of potential victims, so they had people in the major european cities (and were a great fan of the idea of setting up meetings in a *different* country so their target was in a foreign country when the deal was being negotiated)
Most of the scammers involved were black, so there's no reason to suppose they weren't from Nigeria originally, which would fit with the stories a few years ago of people being kidnapped on trips to Nigeria trying to recover their money. Perhaps their home country became too famous as a place where scams occur? Perhaps they know that banks and credit cards don't easily transfer money to Nigeria any more?
"Does anyone know about a free alternative to VMWare etc."
Well, you can run Windows programs in WINE.
And WINE runs on linux.
And linux runs on usermode linux.
And using usermode linux, you can have as many virtual machines as you like.
Plus being WINE, it probably won't take as many system resources as Windows itself (no need to load Internet Explorer regardless, etc.)
Of course, if you want free software, the Free Software people will offer you a Free operating system. There's no particular reason why they should offer you a commercial operating system (or support for it) for free. They would say "but why don't you use Free Software", or "if you're in the Free world, why do you wish to use a non-Free operating system?" or, "if you wish to use non-Free software, why do you come to us requesting a method of not paying for it?"
Then you'd best start by looking at your ISP, who have the ability (technically) to read your unencrypted webmail (yahoo, hotmail etc) as well as your real email account (typically unencrypted POP), plus being able to record the google searches you do, the slashdot comments you post, and able to tie this all to detailed information on your name, address, bank details and phone number.
In the UK, you can use data-protection act to request all such information they've collected on you (it's not allowed to cost more then L10), to see how much they're logging.
Unfortunately, not all email service offer secure POP, not all people know how to use PGP, not all webmail systems handle SSL reliably, and your outgoing mail almost certainly goes unencrypted and via your ISP's SMTP server.
"What about when both ads and useful content are hosted from the same hostname?"
Then the "useful content" company sees its popularity go down, and down, and down... and eventually gets so desparate that they sue Privoxy, just for something to do.
"Block images from this server"
Plenty of us don't see the slashdot graphics ("useful content") because blocking that server allows us to also block the advertisements. It's inconvenient, but less so than allowing advertising to be displayed.
Plus, staff feel more valued if they get a Mac, which probably helps them work better anyway.
"We care so much about getting you the best tools available that we've spent a little more on computers, bought Macs. Hopefully this'll reduce your stress a little compared to Windows machines, and help you work more efficiently. You no longer need to worry about viruses, rebooting, malware, or frustrating difficulties."
Plus they're renowned for being the simplest things to do support for. They probably have 2/3 of what used to be "Windows Support" available to do other more useful things now.
Nothing says you work in a cool place like a Mac on the desk...
"I'm curious, is this the first time a court has acted to enforce the GPL as legally binding?"
Surely it's copyright law which was found to be legally binding, and the GPL found to be irrelevant because the company didn't choose to accept that license.
Slashdot Mirror
"Most IT workers never got overtime"
So why not?
I can't pick up stuff in a store and walk out without paying, it's just plain wrong. And in exactly the same way, my employer can't get work done without paying. Just doesn't happen. You want someone to work for you, you pay, and if you want them to work overtime you pay more.
It's not an optional thing, paying for what you get.
"I can't recall where it was, but some other city tried using solar powered parking meters. They never worked due to insufficient light."
Nottingham has them -- they seem to still be working.
"It should spit out the entire document up to and including the head tag."
<meta name="base64encodedContentPart1" value="4SHFKPP909I...">
"s/RIAA/SCO/g
then
s/SCO/MS/g
See a pattern?"
Yeah : missing semicolons.
"Occasionally you may HAVE to tell someone your password. Keep that in mind selecting one."
Nope, embarassing passwords are good. Stops people from mentioning them.
"The main thing I like about DSL is the persistent connection. If I need an internet resource, I can grab it quickly...without having to wait for the modem."
So are modems really... they connect to the internet when you turn the computer on, and redial automatically whenever they're disconnected.
Plus, that means that people can't phone you (yes I know people who turn their modems on at dinnertime so they can't be phoned)
"so how could you POSSIBLY compare these things ?"
You could compare the things people are using them for, maybe.
People could write in Java because it's multi-platform. Or they could write in C++/Qt.
People could write in Java because of the nice graphical interface. Or they could write in C++/Qt.
People could write in Java because of the useful objects that make programming easier (*cough*strings*cough*). Or they could write in C++/Qt.
Or you could write in Perl/GTK+
Oh, and tke KDE/Gnome argument is over. GNUstep wins. WindowMaker is better than them all.
"When I was a student, I rode a $100 bike to class. Building a $14 million monorail to do the same job sounds like overkill to me."
That's because you're not the one whose mates are bidding for the $14 million contract.
"For example, yet another lawsuit against the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant (what is this the tenth, twentieth, thirtieth?)."
Quote of the day:
"On Monday [when this was written], an earthquake shook the foundations of Diablo Canyon nuclear power station in California. This plant, if it had been built as originally planned, would likely have failed on Monday, likely contaminating hundreds of miles of pacific coastline with deadly radiation.
Thank God the environmentallist wackos were there, in the 1970's, to halt construction on this plant, and force PG&E to redesign the plant so that it could withstand a 7.0 direct on it's location."
"how about an "open" search engine?"
First, figure out how to deal with the fraudsters and spammers and cheats.
Then figure out how the system will work when 80% of the people involved and 90% of the systems involved are cheating (a.k.a. google and P2P fileshares)
"Three more words: "Nigerian bank scam"."
Apparently they're British and European. There was an investagative TV program a few weeks ago, and the Nigerian spammers were operating out of Amsterdam and London, although with plenty of people moving around New York and other US cities also. They needed to meet with a lot of potential victims, so they had people in the major european cities (and were a great fan of the idea of setting up meetings in a *different* country so their target was in a foreign country when the deal was being negotiated)
Most of the scammers involved were black, so there's no reason to suppose they weren't from Nigeria originally, which would fit with the stories a few years ago of people being kidnapped on trips to Nigeria trying to recover their money. Perhaps their home country became too famous as a place where scams occur? Perhaps they know that banks and credit cards don't easily transfer money to Nigeria any more?
The problem is, science *TEACHERS* are not kid-friendly.
And why
"Does anyone know about a free alternative to VMWare etc."
Well, you can run Windows programs in WINE.
And WINE runs on linux.
And linux runs on usermode linux.
And using usermode linux, you can have as many virtual machines as you like.
Plus being WINE, it probably won't take as many system resources as Windows itself (no need to load Internet Explorer regardless, etc.)
Of course, if you want free software, the Free Software people will offer you a Free operating system. There's no particular reason why they should offer you a commercial operating system (or support for it) for free. They would say "but why don't you use Free Software", or "if you're in the Free world, why do you wish to use a non-Free operating system?" or, "if you wish to use non-Free software, why do you come to us requesting a method of not paying for it?"
there was an article on slashdot a while ago. so it must be true!
Joking aside, have a look at the list of Top 10 spammers
1: Alan Ralsky, U.S.A. (Michigan)
2: Scott Richter, U.S.A. (Colorado)
3: Alexey Panov, Germany
4: Tony Banks, U.S.A. (Missouri)
5: Chris Smith, U.S.A. (Minnesota)
6: Eddy Marin, U.S.A. (Florida)
7: Eric Reinertsen, U.S.A. (Florida)
8: Juan Garavaglia, Argentina
9: lmihosting.com, U.S.A.
10:Robert Soloway, U.S.A. (Oregon)
"If you've got a trust-nobody mentality..."
Then you'd best start by looking at your ISP, who have the ability (technically) to read your unencrypted webmail (yahoo, hotmail etc) as well as your real email account (typically unencrypted POP), plus being able to record the google searches you do, the slashdot comments you post, and able to tie this all to detailed information on your name, address, bank details and phone number.
In the UK, you can use data-protection act to request all such information they've collected on you (it's not allowed to cost more then L10), to see how much they're logging.
Unfortunately, not all email service offer secure POP, not all people know how to use PGP, not all webmail systems handle SSL reliably, and your outgoing mail almost certainly goes unencrypted and via your ISP's SMTP server.
"Two Words: Unenforceable overseas. (Score:5, Insightful)"
Three words: "Spammers are American".
"What about when both ads and useful content are hosted from the same hostname?"
Then the "useful content" company sees its popularity go down, and down, and down... and eventually gets so desparate that they sue Privoxy, just for something to do.
"Block images from this server"
Plenty of us don't see the slashdot graphics ("useful content") because blocking that server allows us to also block the advertisements. It's inconvenient, but less so than allowing advertising to be displayed.
Plus, staff feel more valued if they get a Mac, which probably helps them work better anyway.
"We care so much about getting you the best tools available that we've spent a little more on computers, bought Macs. Hopefully this'll reduce your stress a little compared to Windows machines, and help you work more efficiently. You no longer need to worry about viruses, rebooting, malware, or frustrating difficulties."
Plus they're renowned for being the simplest things to do support for. They probably have 2/3 of what used to be "Windows Support" available to do other more useful things now.
Nothing says you work in a cool place like a Mac on the desk...
"You know, like the radio?"
Where I live, the radio repeats just slightly less often than putting an album on.
Howabout a "turn off slashdot" week?
Oh wait, Slashdot is already refusing to participate in a website shutdown this week.
"I love how everyone automatically assumes everything on TV is garbage."
That's because they don't get BBC2 in America, and you'd need RealPlayer to watch it on the internet.
"See, this company used GPL software, and all it got in return it was to be sued and hit with a preliminary injunction!"
"See, this company used Microsoft software, and all it got in return it was to be raided by the BSA and sued for not having licenses!"
Would you buy goods from a company who estimated you should spend 10% of your budget on making sure the receipts are in order?
"I'm curious, is this the first time a court has acted to enforce the GPL as legally binding?"
Surely it's copyright law which was found to be legally binding, and the GPL found to be irrelevant because the company didn't choose to accept that license.
"You would think people would be able to survive without food for 90 minutes."
Last film I saw was Lord of the Rings (180 minutes or so). Nearly everyone in the cinema had at least one packed lunch.
"I can see this being used quite extensively in the warez arena."
Shhhh.... Don't mention the trojans.