Using AIM is in itself a hazardous activity, at least it is a hazard to all the deep dark secrets everybody shares using it. Since I don't have any deep dark secrets I don't really care about their new TOS. If I did have some secrets, there certainly are other more secure ways to communicate them. Of course when more than one person knows a secret, it is no longer a secret anyway so what does it matter? How many persons are allowed to know something and that something can still be called a "secret"?
I never said that MS or any other business is angelic, just that research and innovation can be bought/stolen just like anything else. Patents only protect those with enough money to defend them, mostly big companies. If you are accused of infringing on some big guy's patent, it is YOUR job. to prove you are not, kinda like assumed guilty until you prove yourself innocent. That proving costs a LOT of legal fees. When the IRS accuses you of not paying enough taxes, you also are assumed guilty, until you prove that you did pay the right amount of taxes you owe them. Only in crimes that you could go to prison for, does the accuser still usually have to prove your guilt.
Why keep logs at all? Why should the ISP care who uses what ip address when? Maybe they could keep a log then automatically erase data older than about a month. Having a written, widely advertised policy telling everybody that they DON'T keep logs might actually get them a number of new customers who don't want their information disclosed to the legal dogs under a supoena or for any other reason. Data that does not exist cannot be produced. If the legal eagles know that a given ISP doesn't keep logs, they won't even bother to ask, saving the ISP hassle and expense.
...with technology they acquired rather than created...
So what's wrong with that?! If you need a screw or a bolt, you don't buy a lathe & milling machine and whatever else to make your own, but just go to the hardware store. One of the dreams of many a startup entrepreneur is to be bought up for a fortune by a large company which will then sell the product or incorprate it into their own systems. I suspect that the founders of Connectix are laughing still, all the way to the bank, when MS bought them.
The revolution must be at the ballot box. As long as the mindless masses continue to vote for the politicians who are bought and paid for by these monied interests, the people get what they voted for. The voters of this country are the ones who could and must stop the train. Corporations don't vote, only people like you and me do.
What about the errors they never found out and robbed innocent people who could not afford to confront them in front of a judge or jury?
Do ISP have to legally keep the records that the RIAA is able to subpoena? What if an ISP simply did not keep DHCP or other info as to who used what ip address when? If I was running an ISP I would keep such data for only one billing period, if that, unless there is a law that says that data has to be kept for a certain amount of time. If the RIAA can not tie the ip address to a specific user, then they can not collect a red cent.
...provided some corperation doesn't make that illegal...
Supposedly it is illegal now to copy DVD movies. However there are programs available on the Internet in places beyond the reach of the DMCA that allow the copying of movies to a HD despite the encryption of most DVDs. Physical media will always be used to store digital data, movies included. No copy protection or laws have EVER worked to prevent copying by those who want to make the effort to do so. If a stream of bits is accessible anywhere along its path, it can be duplicated and recorded. It is one thing to make copies for personal use and convenience but quite another to wantonly distribute such copies to others. If encrypted movies become legally distributed over the Internet, they'll get copied onto physical media by most users, DRM stripped out, because hard drives die easily.
Actually, if you have a top-notch system in a quiet environment and a pair of golden ears, you might hear the difference between an iTunes AAC file and the CD itself. If you are playing your music in a car, while jogging or in a myriad of other situations, you will not be able to tell the difference in the sound quality.
Renting a DVD and watching it is a lot cheaper, since most movies are only worth watching once, if that. However, IF it is one worth watching multiple times, then I add it to my collection. If I am about to take a trip, I copy one or two of my favorites onto the HD of my laptop so I can leave the disk safely at home.
CDs are generally very slow compared to a HD. Apple had something like this in OS9 days, but the CD took a *long* time to boot. If the boot CD copies itself to the HD and then reboots from it, that should fix the speed problem.
Indeed choice, choice, choice, etc. is wonderful, but that implies that a potential user has enough knowledge about how the various choices are related to what the main uses of the computer will be put. For server use by an expert, LINUX is a wonderful choice, far better than any other system. For most novice or casual users, LINUX is the worst possible choice because it is 1) fragmented by incompatible versions and interfaces, 2) does not support many hardware devices, especially multi-media, 3) requires a high level of computer knowledge, 4) not much "click or drag" easy to install software for free or for money. Until LINUX overcomes the above limitations, it will remain a great OS for the/. crowd, but will never become used widely by common ordinary non-geek users.
...You just gotta choose the right distribution....
So which is the RIGHT distribution? Someone who wants to word process, get/send e-mail, surf the web, plug in a digital still and/or video camera and edit pictures/video and burn the results onto disk to mail to their friends? Also being able to rip their CD music collection and copy it onto an iPod and legally download music for it is needed. What computer, out of the box, can a person buy that will do all that? The user knows less about computers than any reader here on/. but has plenty of money for hardware and software. Is there *any* Linux distribution ( Xandros?) that will meet ALL of the above requirements? I know Macs and Windows will do all this, but Windows susceptibility to malware will cause the user grief sooner, rather than later. That really leaves only the Mac OSX as a viable alternative as far as I know. Little, if any malware is out in the wilds of the Internet that will spontaneously infect a Mac.
...a traditional journalist (or atleast their employer) could be sued for releasing trade secrets...
I am not so sure about that, since the journalist (traditional or not) never signed an NDA. In this case Apple is not suing the journalist for disclosing, but are trying to use the legal system to force the journalist to reveal the source of information, which likely came from someone who DID sign an NDA. Apple wants to know who that was so they can take action against that informant.
Does the law specify how many copies of a paper, magazine etc. have to be distributed or how many listeners a broadcast station needs to have to qualify legally as a journalist entitled to keep confidential sources? If that is not specified, it might be a legal loophole for a blogger to use. Just print up a few copies of the blog and distribute them with a local freebie ad paper. Voila, now you are a published journalist entitled to protect your sources just like the NY Times!
I guess you have never heard of Ted Bundy and others like that who got started on heinous sex crimes by porn. Like many drugs, porn affects different people differently. If you have children, they may be negatively affected by porn even though you are not.
Of course it was not technical merit. Neither was the VHS vs Betamax decided on technical merit. Savy marketing is much more likely to lead to success than technical merit. A bit of luck also can be very helpful. Mr. Gates was able to take a good enough product and market it to PC manufacturers at a price they were willing to pay. If Apple had opened their OS to other PC makers in the late 80s, then we'd likely mostly be using Apple computers or Apple compatibles of some kind.
Apple may at last have taken a page or two out of Mr. Gates playbook on marketing with the iPod and iTunes also working really well on Windows boxes and by selling an inexpensive, virus free Mac mini. They make less profit on these two products, but if they manage to sell enough of them it will still add up to a pretty big pile of $$$.
...at that point it ceases to be a general purpose computer...
That depends on what your definition is. The Mac still very much is a general purpose computer, even though Joe user is only using a small fraction of its power. You as a knowledgeable user can still make it sing and dance, even if you need to use the command line interface. That is the beauty of OSX. Ordinary users can get useful work out of it and geeks can root (pun intended) around in its software innards to their hearts content.
The whole original article gave the main reason why "they" DON'T switch over. IF stands in the corner stiff because the author is exactly right and what he is saying is largely reflected by the vast majority of narrow minded geeky comments right here on this discussion forum. MS won because they do offer ONE environment that is consistent (even if malware prone) enough for users to have the SAME experince on any compatible hardware and a HUGE number of devices and gadgets. Since MONEY is the reason for the existence of most businesses, anyone who writes software for a living is MUCH more likely to write for the system that can be used consistently by the most users.
Apple realizes this and with the success of their iPod and the Mac mini has the best chance, much better than "free" Linux to be a very big pain in the *** for Mr. Gates and his minions. Their flavor of UNIX may be the "last man standing" at least for the UNIX desktop market.
...kids tend to naturally gravitate towards porn...we're that way naturally...
Indeed true, but that is why responsible parents must teach kids to avoid porn along with many other dangers and pitfalls of life and look both ways before crossing a busy street.
...IMHO, at $100 for OEM, Windows XP Home is a pretty good deal for the average home user and small business....
Why not pay $29.00 more and get a real, industrial strength OSX instead of a hobbled toy that gets infested wih malware within minutes of connecting to the Internet. Why get an OS for good money where you have to beg Mr. Gates for an activation code when you make a non-trivial hardware upgrade? The last reasonably decent OS made by MS was Windows 2000 professional and that too is overpriced compared to OSX. You used to have to pay a little extra for the Mac hardware, but since the mini came out that is no longer true either, especially if you already have a nice monitor for your Wintel box.
Except there is a large amount of software, especially some of the older versions and most games that die if they don't have full access to wherever they want to write on the drive. Even some of the MS stuff won't work properly unless the user is logged in as an admin. Unfortuately, Windows is still basically a single user OS where much, if not most software makes the assumption that since it is running on a PERSONAL computer, the person sitting in front of the monitor owns the computer and therefore has full, unfettered access to every spot on all disk drives. *NIX based systems and software have a multi-user heritage and do NOT assume that every user that sits down in front of the screen can automatically have total freedom with the machine.
Until Joe non/. type savy user can get a software package from a store shelf and have it work on ALL flavors of Linux without doing more than clicking the mouse a few times, Linux will NOT ever be a mainstream OS. The ONLY *NIX flavor system that currently allows that simplicity is Mac OSX. The Linux advocates need to get together and agree on ONE flavor that GUARANTEES that a novice user can get it working at least as well as Mac OSX has done. Until that agreement happens, Desktop Linux is and unfortunately will remain a dream. If that would happen, then many software developers would see $$$ signs and publish one program flavor that would be guaranteed to work on the vast majority of Linux systems, just as they now do for Windows and Mac. The fact that there are a multiplicity of GUI systems for Linux is wonderfull for us geeks here on/. , but is terribly confusing for the masses of ordinary computer buyers.
How old do the girls and boys of Utah have to be before they are allowed to legally get married in a union of one male and one female? Is it not at least 18, as in most states?
When I was referring to weathervane, I was not thinking of Mr. Kerry changing his mind, but saying different, often opposite things to various audiences, depending on what he thought they wanted to hear. A weathervane chnges with the wind and Mr. Kerry changed with what he thought was the political wind of the moment.
...I CAN and WILL watch my kid every single second...
There WILL however come a time when you will not be able to watch them. However, if they know you love them and they TRUST you, then there is a very high probability (no guarantee though) that their love for you will keep them from going places and doing things you have told them are harmful and must be shunned. Laws do NOT make people good, but love CAN.
Polygamy is generally defined at having more than one wife AT A TIME ie. parallel adultery. However SERIAL adultery is legal and practiced everywhere in this country. There are some who have been married and unmarried who knows how many times and that seems to be perfectly fine with most of our society and legal system. Is there really such a great difference between comitting parallel adultery and the common serial variety? Generally, when a man and woman get married, they make a "until death do us part" promise. That promise is not being kept much anymore these days. I see both kinds of adultery equally wrong.
I don't know why you did not get moderated "troll". The MAJORITY of the voters are NOT idiots, but carefully looked at the opposing candidate and decided that they did not want a weather vane in the White house....the brainwashed masses.... Yes, the liberal elites think that they have to protect all those stupid ignorant people and do their thinking for them and impose their even stupider ideas on the clueless majority. I've got NEWS for you, but democracy works for the MAJORITY, whether YOU think in your little brain that the majority is stupid or not. Having said all that, it not the job of society (corporate or government or elitists like you) to educate and "protect" the children, but their parents. They alone should keep watch over their kids as they surf the net and teach them to stay out of bad cyberspace neighborhoods just as they might do in the physical world. Too many parents abdicate their responsibility for the upbringing of their children, turning it over to the public. You teach YOUR children (if you have any) according to your perception what is porn or not and let me teach mine, according to the principles outlined that book you malign, the Bible.
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...in other forms of hazardous activities...
Using AIM is in itself a hazardous activity, at least it is a hazard to all the deep dark secrets everybody shares using it. Since I don't have any deep dark secrets I don't really care about their new TOS. If I did have some secrets, there certainly are other more secure ways to communicate them. Of course when more than one person knows a secret, it is no longer a secret anyway so what does it matter? How many persons are allowed to know something and that something can still be called a "secret"?
I never said that MS or any other business is angelic, just that research and innovation can be bought/stolen just like anything else. Patents only protect those with enough money to defend them, mostly big companies. If you are accused of infringing on some big guy's patent, it is YOUR job. to prove you are not, kinda like assumed guilty until you prove yourself innocent. That proving costs a LOT of legal fees. When the IRS accuses you of not paying enough taxes, you also are assumed guilty, until you prove that you did pay the right amount of taxes you owe them. Only in crimes that you could go to prison for, does the accuser still usually have to prove your guilt.
...logs go misteriously missing...
Why keep logs at all? Why should the ISP care who uses what ip address when? Maybe they could keep a log then automatically erase data older than about a month. Having a written, widely advertised policy telling everybody that they DON'T keep logs might actually get them a number of new customers who don't want their information disclosed to the legal dogs under a supoena or for any other reason. Data that does not exist cannot be produced. If the legal eagles know that a given ISP doesn't keep logs, they won't even bother to ask, saving the ISP hassle and expense.
...with technology they acquired rather than created...
So what's wrong with that?! If you need a screw or a bolt, you don't buy a lathe & milling machine and whatever else to make your own, but just go to the hardware store. One of the dreams of many a startup entrepreneur is to be bought up for a fortune by a large company which will then sell the product or incorprate it into their own systems. I suspect that the founders of Connectix are laughing still, all the way to the bank, when MS bought them.
...then it is time for a revolution...
The revolution must be at the ballot box. As long as the mindless masses continue to vote for the politicians who are bought and paid for by these monied interests, the people get what they voted for. The voters of this country are the ones who could and must stop the train. Corporations don't vote, only people like you and me do.
...soon as they found out the error...
What about the errors they never found out and robbed innocent people who could not afford to confront them in front of a judge or jury?
Do ISP have to legally keep the records that the RIAA is able to subpoena? What if an ISP simply did not keep DHCP or other info as to who used what ip address when? If I was running an ISP I would keep such data for only one billing period, if that, unless there is a law that says that data has to be kept for a certain amount of time. If the RIAA can not tie the ip address to a specific user, then they can not collect a red cent.
...provided some corperation doesn't make that illegal...
Supposedly it is illegal now to copy DVD movies. However there are programs available on the Internet in places beyond the reach of the DMCA that allow the copying of movies to a HD despite the encryption of most DVDs. Physical media will always be used to store digital data, movies included. No copy protection or laws have EVER worked to prevent copying by those who want to make the effort to do so. If a stream of bits is accessible anywhere along its path, it can be duplicated and recorded. It is one thing to make copies for personal use and convenience but quite another to wantonly distribute such copies to others. If encrypted movies become legally distributed over the Internet, they'll get copied onto physical media by most users, DRM stripped out, because hard drives die easily.
...people settled for lower quality...
Actually, if you have a top-notch system in a quiet environment and a pair of golden ears, you might hear the difference between an iTunes AAC file and the CD itself. If you are playing your music in a car, while jogging or in a myriad of other situations, you will not be able to tell the difference in the sound quality.
...rent a DVD 4-5 times...
Renting a DVD and watching it is a lot cheaper, since most movies are only worth watching once, if that. However, IF it is one worth watching multiple times, then I add it to my collection. If I am about to take a trip, I copy one or two of my favorites onto the HD of my laptop so I can leave the disk safely at home.
...Throw in the disc, boot, get work done...
CDs are generally very slow compared to a HD. Apple had something like this in OS9 days, but the CD took a *long* time to boot. If the boot CD copies itself to the HD and then reboots from it, that should fix the speed problem.
...So, you have a choice....
/. crowd, but will never become used widely by common ordinary non-geek users.
Indeed choice, choice, choice, etc. is wonderful, but that implies that a potential user has enough knowledge about how the various choices are related to what the main uses of the computer will be put. For server use by an expert, LINUX is a wonderful choice, far better than any other system. For most novice or casual users, LINUX is the worst possible choice because it is 1) fragmented by incompatible versions and interfaces, 2) does not support many hardware devices, especially multi-media, 3) requires a high level of computer knowledge, 4) not much "click or drag" easy to install software for free or for money. Until LINUX overcomes the above limitations, it will remain a great OS for the
...You just gotta choose the right distribution....
/. but has plenty of money for hardware and software. Is there *any* Linux distribution ( Xandros?) that will meet ALL of the above requirements? I know Macs and Windows will do all this, but Windows susceptibility to malware will cause the user grief sooner, rather than later. That really leaves only the Mac OSX as a viable alternative as far as I know. Little, if any malware is out in the wilds of the Internet that will spontaneously infect a Mac.
So which is the RIGHT distribution? Someone who wants to word process, get/send e-mail, surf the web, plug in a digital still and/or video camera and edit pictures/video and burn the results onto disk to mail to their friends? Also being able to rip their CD music collection and copy it onto an iPod and legally download music for it is needed. What computer, out of the box, can a person buy that will do all that? The user knows less about computers than any reader here on
...a traditional journalist (or atleast their employer) could be sued for releasing trade secrets...
I am not so sure about that, since the journalist (traditional or not) never signed an NDA. In this case Apple is not suing the journalist for disclosing, but are trying to use the legal system to force the journalist to reveal the source of information, which likely came from someone who DID sign an NDA. Apple wants to know who that was so they can take action against that informant.
Does the law specify how many copies of a paper, magazine etc. have to be distributed or how many listeners a broadcast station needs to have to qualify legally as a journalist entitled to keep confidential sources? If that is not specified, it might be a legal loophole for a blogger to use. Just print up a few copies of the blog and distribute them with a local freebie ad paper. Voila, now you are a published journalist entitled to protect your sources just like the NY Times!
I guess you have never heard of Ted Bundy and others like that who got started on heinous sex crimes by porn. Like many drugs, porn affects different people differently. If you have children, they may be negatively affected by porn even though you are not.
...some form of technical merit...
Of course it was not technical merit. Neither was the VHS vs Betamax decided on technical merit. Savy marketing is much more likely to lead to success than technical merit. A bit of luck also can be very helpful. Mr. Gates was able to take a good enough product and market it to PC manufacturers at a price they were willing to pay. If Apple had opened their OS to other PC makers in the late 80s, then we'd likely mostly be using Apple computers or Apple compatibles of some kind.
Apple may at last have taken a page or two out of Mr. Gates playbook on marketing with the iPod and iTunes also working really well on Windows boxes and by selling an inexpensive, virus free Mac mini. They make less profit on these two products, but if they manage to sell enough of them it will still add up to a pretty big pile of $$$.
...at that point it ceases to be a general purpose computer...
That depends on what your definition is. The Mac still very much is a general purpose computer, even though Joe user is only using a small fraction of its power. You as a knowledgeable user can still make it sing and dance, even if you need to use the command line interface. That is the beauty of OSX. Ordinary users can get useful work out of it and geeks can root (pun intended) around in its software innards to their hearts content.
...If they all switched over...
The whole original article gave the main reason why "they" DON'T switch over. IF stands in the corner stiff because the author is exactly right and what he is saying is largely reflected by the vast majority of narrow minded geeky comments right here on this discussion forum. MS won because they do offer ONE environment that is consistent (even if malware prone) enough for users to have the SAME experince on any compatible hardware and a HUGE number of devices and gadgets. Since MONEY is the reason for the existence of most businesses, anyone who writes software for a living is MUCH more likely to write for the system that can be used consistently by the most users.
Apple realizes this and with the success of their iPod and the Mac mini has the best chance, much better than "free" Linux to be a very big pain in the *** for Mr. Gates and his minions. Their flavor of UNIX may be the "last man standing" at least for the UNIX desktop market.
...kids tend to naturally gravitate towards porn...we're that way naturally...
Indeed true, but that is why responsible parents must teach kids to avoid porn along with many other dangers and pitfalls of life and look both ways before crossing a busy street.
...IMHO, at $100 for OEM, Windows XP Home is a pretty good deal for the average home user and small business....
Why not pay $29.00 more and get a real, industrial strength OSX instead of a hobbled toy that gets infested wih malware within minutes of connecting to the Internet. Why get an OS for good money where you have to beg Mr. Gates for an activation code when you make a non-trivial hardware upgrade? The last reasonably decent OS made by MS was Windows 2000 professional and that too is overpriced compared to OSX. You used to have to pay a little extra for the Mac hardware, but since the mini came out that is no longer true either, especially if you already have a nice monitor for your Wintel box.
...by making C: read only...
/. type savy user can get a software package from a store shelf and have it work on ALL flavors of Linux without doing more than clicking the mouse a few times, Linux will NOT ever be a mainstream OS. The ONLY *NIX flavor system that currently allows that simplicity is Mac OSX. The Linux advocates need to get together and agree on ONE flavor that GUARANTEES that a novice user can get it working at least as well as Mac OSX has done. Until that agreement happens, Desktop Linux is and unfortunately will remain a dream. If that would happen, then many software developers would see $$$ signs and publish one program flavor that would be guaranteed to work on the vast majority of Linux systems, just as they now do for Windows and Mac. The fact that there are a multiplicity of GUI systems for Linux is wonderfull for us geeks here on /. , but is terribly confusing for the masses of ordinary computer buyers.
Except there is a large amount of software, especially some of the older versions and most games that die if they don't have full access to wherever they want to write on the drive. Even some of the MS stuff won't work properly unless the user is logged in as an admin. Unfortuately, Windows is still basically a single user OS where much, if not most software makes the assumption that since it is running on a PERSONAL computer, the person sitting in front of the monitor owns the computer and therefore has full, unfettered access to every spot on all disk drives. *NIX based systems and software have a multi-user heritage and do NOT assume that every user that sits down in front of the screen can automatically have total freedom with the machine.
Until Joe non
How old do the girls and boys of Utah have to be before they are allowed to legally get married in a union of one male and one female? Is it not at least 18, as in most states?
When I was referring to weathervane, I was not thinking of Mr. Kerry changing his mind, but saying different, often opposite things to various audiences, depending on what he thought they wanted to hear. A weathervane chnges with the wind and Mr. Kerry changed with what he thought was the political wind of the moment.
...I CAN and WILL watch my kid every single second...
There WILL however come a time when you will not be able to watch them. However, if they know you love them and they TRUST you, then there is a very high probability (no guarantee though) that their love for you will keep them from going places and doing things you have told them are harmful and must be shunned. Laws do NOT make people good, but love CAN.
... polygamy is officially illegal...
Polygamy is generally defined at having more than one wife AT A TIME ie. parallel adultery. However SERIAL adultery is legal and practiced everywhere in this country. There are some who have been married and unmarried who knows how many times and that seems to be perfectly fine with most of our society and legal system. Is there really such a great difference between comitting parallel adultery and the common serial variety? Generally, when a man and woman get married, they make a "until death do us part" promise. That promise is not being kept much anymore these days. I see both kinds of adultery equally wrong.
...the idiots of this country...
...the brainwashed masses....
I don't know why you did not get moderated "troll". The MAJORITY of the voters are NOT idiots, but carefully looked at the opposing candidate and decided that they did not want a weather vane in the White house.
Yes, the liberal elites think that they have to protect all those stupid ignorant people and do their thinking for them and impose their even stupider ideas on the clueless majority. I've got NEWS for you, but democracy works for the MAJORITY, whether YOU think in your little brain that the majority is stupid or not.
Having said all that, it not the job of society (corporate or government or elitists like you) to educate and "protect" the children, but their parents. They alone should keep watch over their kids as they surf the net and teach them to stay out of bad cyberspace neighborhoods just as they might do in the physical world. Too many parents abdicate their responsibility for the upbringing of their children, turning it over to the public. You teach YOUR children (if you have any) according to your perception what is porn or not and let me teach mine, according to the principles outlined that book you malign, the Bible.