Get back to your corporate job, citizen. What the hell are you doing programming your computer without being paid for it, and why the hell would you share your knowledge or skills with other commoners? Why can't you just be like everyone else and separate your work from your hobbies?
Or rather: How do you dare not to monetize your hobbies, so that we, the State, can tax you royally to death?
Can people stop bitching about the fact that the GUI subsystem is being modernized and go take advantage of all the old, inefficient, software-powered solutions that you prefer?
You call Gnome 3, Unity, Wayland etc... modernizing the GUI? Isn't modernization supposed to make things better, more portable (to non-Linuxes), more usable? There's nothing wrong with leveraging GPUs, when available, but making them a precondition at this point is way too early: there are way too many non-capable devices out there that still need good old and trusty X.org + MesaGL (+ a decent WM like Fluxbox, or KDE if you really need the bloat).
Yup, tastes are different. That's why UIs should be customizable by the end user. It was possible from the beginning under X11 where you could freely swap window managers (and configure most WMs as well quite a lot); under XP, you could choose classic or glossy etc... What's preventing Microsoft from letting people pick and keep the kind of UI they feel most comfortable with?
The Desktop in Windows 8 looks just fine once you get past Metro. It's less blingy than Windows 7, although there is still a lot of room for improvement.
You call Win7's Aero Glass blingy? IMHO, that's one of the most appealing parts of the Windows UI so far. Personally, I feel kind of "hurt" by the ultra-dry and ascetic look of TIKFAM and Win8's "desktop" as well. That's like shiny monochrome plastic furniture in a cold and uncomfy hospital room, instead of the cosy home we're familiar with. Sorry if it doesn't sound technical; it's more of a visceral reaction.
Shouldn't the final patch of an EOL-ed product be its full source code? For example, what's preventing Microsoft from releasing the source code to Windows for Workgroups 3.11, oldish NT, or even up to Win2k? If people are still using these, Microsoft is sure as hell not getting one penny anymore from those users. So what harm would there be in releasing that old code base?
In our case, when it's not simple office stuff that IS replaceable or WINEable, many of those apps use XP drivers to access specialized hardware. Wine doesn't adequately support the Windows Driver Model to be a serious replacement in this field.
Our over 12k machines are still running FreeBSD, and we don't plan to change that anytime soon. But there's also a couple of 600 or so PCs with XP for office folks that we are slowly updating to either FreeBSD, Linux or Windows 7. After serious evaluation, we've decided that we won't touch that Windows 8 abomination with a 10ft. pole here and plan to stay with XP and then Windows 7 as long as security updates are available. There's no need to rush.
I'd rather say that Corporations are gangs of people that are legalized by the State, because they pay taxes. And because the State itself is the biggest gang of them all, we're all living in a kind of hierarchical order of gangs, going from the top-tier (States) to the bottom (little Corporations). Whether this is better or worse than the old feudal system where gangs were organizedi n a flatter hierarchy, and where there was much more in-fighting going on between them, remains to be seen.
This strikes me as a powerful indication of the state of the world. The Nation state is in decline. The multi national corporation is calling the tune, and the laws are now being adjusted to ensure that any infraction against the all mighty corporation anywhere on the planet is dealt with swiftly and with overwhelming force.
Some 25 to 10 years ago, SF literature was full of dystopian stories about mega-corps taking control over the world, and Nation States being but ridiculous puppets on a string. This leitmotiv that was a staple of SF back then slowly faded away recently. I'm wondering why. Maybe because it's already become reality?
Why would that be a problem? Instead of being extradited for a petty copyright infringement case, we would be extradited for criticizing the Chinese communist party. Personally, I couldn't care less: both empires would be equally repressive, if you dare to break their respective taboos.
Somehow everything is turned in a way that does not benefit the common people.
That's because common people don't have a lobby, and don't have deep pockets to buy laws in their favor. This is not surprising: it is one of those shortcomings of the representative system. If people voted directly for their laws (like in Switzerland), it would be harder for the corps to get away with lobbying: they may be able to buy off representatives, but to change peoples' opinion, they need HUGE PR campaigns, and those are many orders of magnitude more expensive than the corruption ^W campaign donations.
A full version of Win7 Ultimate costs 310 Euro in Germany (retail and/or Microsoft's own store). That's quite expensive, but at least, it's not an SB or OEM version. A Win7 Ultimate SB is around 200 Euro, depending on the store; but that would be hard to reassign to a new hardware should the old hardware break. But for games, an SB or even OEM Home Premium license would be more than enough and would cost around 120 Euros or so here.
For the n-th time, repeat after me: copying != stealing. The Finnish group still has access to its subtitles, they were merely copied, not moved/stolen. If we complain that the MAFIAA uses wrong terms in its campaign against free file sharing, so we should also refrain from using the same flawed terminology.
Doesn't this equally apply to all software vendors, irrespective of their nationality? And while we're at it: doesn't it ALSO apply equally well to hardware vendors? Do you really trust ASICs made in China, from blueprints drawn up in UK from a company that may have a Pakistani mole in its dev team, who has been bought by the Russian FSB or the Brazilian equivalent of the CIA?
They don't take content: they extracct a small part of the content (the title and a small summary). That's called fair use.
Unfortunately, the exception to the Copyright called "Fair Use Doctrine" is specific to the USA, and is usually illegal/non-present in countries like France.
Google News is not really the issue here, it's just a symptom. It's that most papers are just syndicating a couple of news agencies (AP, Reuters, AFP,...) and keep mirroring the same stuff over and over again, without bothering to do some genuine own research.
If the story is true, does it mean that Mathgen almost managed to pass the Turing Test by masquerading as a true mathematician without being noticed as fake? If so, let's integrate Mathgen into Emacs just like Eliza. Need a math paper in a hurry? Just M-x-mathgen it!
Why not Blackwater? Wouldn't it be more honest and character-like this way (I'm sarcastic, of course!)? Let's keep the police outside of economic rows between private entities and do its real job. Abusing the police to enforce private interests has always been the slippery slope that eventually leads to fascism. We should be forewarned enough about this to not repeat the same mistakes again and again.
And where do you propose they get their hands on large quantities of gold/silver through the embargo?
You may not be aware of this, but gold is pretty widespread in the Middle East... and is actually used as an unofficial currency quite often. It wouldn't but such a big change for Iranians to switch to gold altogether.
Seriously! Instead of printing increasingly worthless fiat currency, this should be a wonderful opportunity for Iran to switch back to the only real currency from times immemorial that doesn't lose value: gold. Currently, they're drinking from the poisoned cup of hyperinflation. If that cup is broken due to broken currency presses, they shouldn't pick up another one; they should stop drinking that poison. (Of course, they won't, as long as their government needs insane amounts of money and thinks that it can simply print more of it on an as-needed basis, like the ECB or the FED).
Slashdot Mirror
... we're all living on the B-Ark.
Or rather: How do you dare not to monetize your hobbies, so that we, the State, can tax you royally to death?
You call Gnome 3, Unity, Wayland etc... modernizing the GUI? Isn't modernization supposed to make things better, more portable (to non-Linuxes), more usable? There's nothing wrong with leveraging GPUs, when available, but making them a precondition at this point is way too early: there are way too many non-capable devices out there that still need good old and trusty X.org + MesaGL (+ a decent WM like Fluxbox, or KDE if you really need the bloat).
Yup, tastes are different. That's why UIs should be customizable by the end user. It was possible from the beginning under X11 where you could freely swap window managers (and configure most WMs as well quite a lot); under XP, you could choose classic or glossy etc... What's preventing Microsoft from letting people pick and keep the kind of UI they feel most comfortable with?
Not if they manage to lock (99% of) the PC world in Microsoft UEFI-Hell. Browser wars are so passé. BIOS lockdowns are the new super weapon of Microsoft. I'm wondering how long it would take for the EU to issue anti-competitive rulings in this area too.
You call Win7's Aero Glass blingy? IMHO, that's one of the most appealing parts of the Windows UI so far. Personally, I feel kind of "hurt" by the ultra-dry and ascetic look of TIKFAM and Win8's "desktop" as well. That's like shiny monochrome plastic furniture in a cold and uncomfy hospital room, instead of the cosy home we're familiar with. Sorry if it doesn't sound technical; it's more of a visceral reaction.
Shouldn't the final patch of an EOL-ed product be its full source code? For example, what's preventing Microsoft from releasing the source code to Windows for Workgroups 3.11, oldish NT, or even up to Win2k? If people are still using these, Microsoft is sure as hell not getting one penny anymore from those users. So what harm would there be in releasing that old code base?
In our case, when it's not simple office stuff that IS replaceable or WINEable, many of those apps use XP drivers to access specialized hardware. Wine doesn't adequately support the Windows Driver Model to be a serious replacement in this field.
Our over 12k machines are still running FreeBSD, and we don't plan to change that anytime soon. But there's also a couple of 600 or so PCs with XP for office folks that we are slowly updating to either FreeBSD, Linux or Windows 7. After serious evaluation, we've decided that we won't touch that Windows 8 abomination with a 10ft. pole here and plan to stay with XP and then Windows 7 as long as security updates are available. There's no need to rush.
I'd rather say that Corporations are gangs of people that are legalized by the State, because they pay taxes. And because the State itself is the biggest gang of them all, we're all living in a kind of hierarchical order of gangs, going from the top-tier (States) to the bottom (little Corporations). Whether this is better or worse than the old feudal system where gangs were organizedi n a flatter hierarchy, and where there was much more in-fighting going on between them, remains to be seen.
Some 25 to 10 years ago, SF literature was full of dystopian stories about mega-corps taking control over the world, and Nation States being but ridiculous puppets on a string. This leitmotiv that was a staple of SF back then slowly faded away recently. I'm wondering why. Maybe because it's already become reality?
Why would that be a problem? Instead of being extradited for a petty copyright infringement case, we would be extradited for criticizing the Chinese communist party. Personally, I couldn't care less: both empires would be equally repressive, if you dare to break their respective taboos.
What's a Muzzie? Oh, you mean a hate preacher like that Abu Hamsa? Why not say so outright?
That's because common people don't have a lobby, and don't have deep pockets to buy laws in their favor. This is not surprising: it is one of those shortcomings of the representative system. If people voted directly for their laws (like in Switzerland), it would be harder for the corps to get away with lobbying: they may be able to buy off representatives, but to change peoples' opinion, they need HUGE PR campaigns, and those are many orders of magnitude more expensive than the corruption ^W campaign donations.
A full version of Win7 Ultimate costs 310 Euro in Germany (retail and/or Microsoft's own store). That's quite expensive, but at least, it's not an SB or OEM version. A Win7 Ultimate SB is around 200 Euro, depending on the store; but that would be hard to reassign to a new hardware should the old hardware break. But for games, an SB or even OEM Home Premium license would be more than enough and would cost around 120 Euros or so here.
For the n-th time, repeat after me: copying != stealing. The Finnish group still has access to its subtitles, they were merely copied, not moved/stolen. If we complain that the MAFIAA uses wrong terms in its campaign against free file sharing, so we should also refrain from using the same flawed terminology.
Doesn't this equally apply to all software vendors, irrespective of their nationality? And while we're at it: doesn't it ALSO apply equally well to hardware vendors? Do you really trust ASICs made in China, from blueprints drawn up in UK from a company that may have a Pakistani mole in its dev team, who has been bought by the Russian FSB or the Brazilian equivalent of the CIA?
Unfortunately, the exception to the Copyright called "Fair Use Doctrine" is specific to the USA, and is usually illegal/non-present in countries like France.
Google News is not really the issue here, it's just a symptom. It's that most papers are just syndicating a couple of news agencies (AP, Reuters, AFP, ...) and keep mirroring the same stuff over and over again, without bothering to do some genuine own research.
I'd rather expect a classy: "Oh, merde...!" (spoken with a Patrick Steward accent).
If the story is true, does it mean that Mathgen almost managed to pass the Turing Test by masquerading as a true mathematician without being noticed as fake? If so, let's integrate Mathgen into Emacs just like Eliza. Need a math paper in a hurry? Just M-x-mathgen it!
If they do, and your server uses their blacklist, how do you get this notification in the first place?
Why not Blackwater? Wouldn't it be more honest and character-like this way (I'm sarcastic, of course!)? Let's keep the police outside of economic rows between private entities and do its real job. Abusing the police to enforce private interests has always been the slippery slope that eventually leads to fascism. We should be forewarned enough about this to not repeat the same mistakes again and again.
You may not be aware of this, but gold is pretty widespread in the Middle East... and is actually used as an unofficial currency quite often. It wouldn't but such a big change for Iranians to switch to gold altogether.
Seriously! Instead of printing increasingly worthless fiat currency, this should be a wonderful opportunity for Iran to switch back to the only real currency from times immemorial that doesn't lose value: gold. Currently, they're drinking from the poisoned cup of hyperinflation. If that cup is broken due to broken currency presses, they shouldn't pick up another one; they should stop drinking that poison. (Of course, they won't, as long as their government needs insane amounts of money and thinks that it can simply print more of it on an as-needed basis, like the ECB or the FED).