This shows a complete understanding of *ism. People sometimes complain about "reverse" racism or sexist, but the problem is that they don't understand that it's not just about discrimination: yes, perhaps it is sex-based discrimination, but that does not make it sexist. Sexism or racism is discrimination in favor of a dominant power structure - in other words, if white have all the power and discriminate against non-whites, it's racist. If whites have all the power and someone creates a black television station, it's not. Encouraging people of underrepresented groups to participate is never *ism.
It's not like MMORPGS, it's more like LARPing. But if you STFU and RTFM, you should know that.
Just kidding. It pisses me off when things get posted to/. with NO background information whatsoever, especially when the articles themselves assume you know what it is.
ARGs are basically playing a game in the real world, and suspending your disbelief long enough that you are in an alternate reality. The idea is that fiction should blend seamlessly into life.
As much as I support the freedom of information, you have to admire German privacy laws (Datenschutz). Selling your cell phone calls with location? Not a problem in Germany, for good reason.
Basically, the man has a right to have his identity protected in Germany. No, they can't censor the internet, but they can make their position as clear as possible, and I kind of support them standing up to the constant stripping away of privacy that occurs on the internet.
Slashdotters, you always care so much about privacy - is it only when it's your own? And what do we gain by knowing his full last name, instead of the inital? It is a violation of the dead man's privacy and that of his family, with no gain whatsoever to us. The only way to walk the line between freedom of information and invasion of privacy is to be pragmatic in this regard, and recognize that we deserve to protect that information which is not of public interest.
You made the same mistake as vegetasaiyajin - just because it's "more than 10%" doesn't mean it's 1/9, or 1/8, or anything else. All the article says is "more than 10%" - concluding it must be 1 in 9 is as valid as concluding it's 1 in 5, or 1 in 2. For crying out loud, if you're trying to correct a correction, try being RIGHT.
Your reasoning is wrong, actually. Just because 1/9 > 10% doesn't mean that "more than 10%" (which is all the article says) is automatically 1 in 9. Heck, 1/2 > 10%, but "more than 10%" does not entail 1 in 2. There's no evidence that "1 in 9" is anything other than sloppy editors.
It seems that as Google encourages developers to write windows-only plugins, and GDS comes to rely on third-party plugins for functionality, it'll become that much more difficult to ever see GDS on OS X or linux. Of course, OS X has Spotlight, but it looks like Google is gunning for more than just desktop search, and instead providing a platform that ties Google services and the Desktop together. (Those looking for a GoogleOS - this is probably the closest we're going to get.)
If Yahoo! gets serious with Konfabulator, it could provide a similar service, but in a cross-platform manner. Likely? Perhaps not. But Yahoo! seems to be shaking it's past history of Windows-only support and moving towards platform independence, while Google is bringing out more and more Windows-only products (GDS, Accelerator, Earth). Just another reason that Google seems to be losing geek mindshare while Yahoo! is gaining it. Just look at the rising number of comments on slashdot that are questioning Google's benevolence, or supporting Yahoo!'s newfound drive to openness - flawed though slashdot may be, the comments give you a good barometer for the geek world.
The next revolution in pointer control may be when you don't need to use an imprecise limb for movement.
Eye-follow technologies exist already, but when you complain that your hands are imprecise... well, you'd be surprised by how imprecise your eyes are. Your eyes are moving all the time, and even if you had very, very good control over them, I doubt you would ever rival the precision of physically placing an object at a point with your hand.
I mean, I shouldn't be surprised, but I am. It seems liek 90% of the people commenting didn't RTFA, or didn't have their brains installed at the time. This isn't a secure banking system - it is, as one person pointed out, probably better described as OpenHandle. You sign in ONCE, and from that site, you tell it which other sites can authenticate from your identity site. Then, these sites know who you are. They don't get your password, or anything, they just get a temporary key to verify that you're you. Any site can fake it, that's not the point. The point is that you have participating sites where you would want to now have to sign in every time you want to comment. It helps prevent lock-in to blogs etc - imagine, for example, you sign in to slashdot, and then you can use the same handle without having to create accounts and sign in at other blogging services. THAT's the idea. It's not a trust net, or a passport-like system, it's just so that sites that want to play by the rules can provide people with a convenient way to identify themselves. That's ALL.
It's not just getting paid to do it - having access to Google's codebase and infrastructure would allow you to do "pet projects" that simply wouldn't be possible on your own.
You're missing the point. He's talking not about the Linux kernel, but GNU/Linux as a desktop operating system and the applications you run on it (which is a perfectly valid use of the term "Linux", since everyone knows what is meant). In this sense, yes, Linux does have something to do with playing MP3s.
I don't care if YOU personally configured your debian system. I run Gentoo with Ratpoison and a few aterms - big whoop. The point is that the AVERAGE USER will find Linux systems (yes, this includes applications) less responsive than WinXP.
Read the article - and read the post you're replying to thoroughly, for that matter.
Yes, I agree - under linux, at least you have choice. I choose to run Ratpoison on Gentoo, and it's phenomenally fast. No quibbles. But the point the author was making was that in bloating the default desktop for the AVERAGE user, we loose out on a huge market: outdated machines that could be converted to linux boxen. Sure, I still use ancient machines and have a working linux box, but it would not suffice for the needs of an average user desktop. KDE and GNOME, the only real contenders as far as replacing windows goes, have system requirements that in some cases outstrip those of windows. What worries me is: it's precisely KDE and GNOME that aren't really targeted and the hardcore geeks, those most likely to have state-of-the-art hardware, so they should be more geared towards efficiency.
Yes, we can choose, and you can always pare down a linux machine to the console - but that's not the issue here. If you think it is, you're slightly missing the point of the article, which I would encourage you to read.
...or divide and conquer. It's very strange that people seem to need to lash out so violently. From what I've read of the article (pages 1 and 2, since the rest is lost to slashdotting) the article seems to be relatively non-inflammatory.
Of course, this means we need to start attacking him for DARING to even SUGGEST that, yes there are things about BSD that Linux people could stand to understand. I'm personally a contended Gentoo Linux user, and I disagree with the idea in BSD of writing code that anyone can simply use without giving something back. Heck, I wouldn't work for Microsoft for money, I sure as heck won't do it for free! But that sort of brings up the issue that, for the most part, Linux people tend to care more about the political/ethical issues of code that BSDers, who seem to be more down-to-earth realists. Gross generalization - perhaps. Again, just my impression, just as the article is merely the author's impression.
So divide and conquer. Get the free unices to squabble amongst themselves as much as possible, and it's harder for them to threaten more entrenched OSes. Or at least, it seems that way to me. What I'm trying to say is: while the differences between BSD and Linux (and, indeed, between the different BSDs and linux distros) are what make us so strong (nobody likes monoculture), this excessive fighting really is useless. Moreover, I think the people who get all radical about these things tend to hurt the cause more (in terms of broad adoption) than helping. If you feel like preaching to convince people to try your OS - don't. The straightforward, YMMV, choose-what's-best-for-you explanation has helped me convince many people to try free software alternatives. A drop of honey catches more flies than a bucket of gall...
Some do, some don't. Get over it. Personally, I'd like to see more articles of this type. And maybe some more reconciliation between the free unices.
But then, if we didn't have flame wars, I guess it wouldn't be slashdot, eh?
Yes, my university uses Chalk, a product by Blackboard. It was deployed last year, and horrified us all. I will grant that, to the best of my knowlege, no open-source alternative exists, but to say that this is supposedly quality software is mind-boggling.
Clearly, the author does not think very highly of the students who attend a supposedly exclusive university. A shame indeed. Despite the fact that I have little love for Princeton in my heart, I'm pretty sure that a few of their CS majors could whip up something better than Chalk in a couple of months.
It does, however, raise the issue that a free software alternative does not exist in most of these cases. This situation would be easily remedied if the university opted to have an opensource project developed.
Oh, and the best part of the article was that the entire point was likening free software to the Nigerian scam... now what is it precisely that the open-source community is trying to scam, I wonder?
Slashdot Mirror
This shows a complete understanding of *ism. People sometimes complain about "reverse" racism or sexist, but the problem is that they don't understand that it's not just about discrimination: yes, perhaps it is sex-based discrimination, but that does not make it sexist. Sexism or racism is discrimination in favor of a dominant power structure - in other words, if white have all the power and discriminate against non-whites, it's racist. If whites have all the power and someone creates a black television station, it's not. Encouraging people of underrepresented groups to participate is never *ism.
Just thought perhaps that should be cleared up.
It's not like MMORPGS, it's more like LARPing. But if you STFU and RTFM, you should know that.
/. with NO background information whatsoever, especially when the articles themselves assume you know what it is.
Just kidding. It pisses me off when things get posted to
ARGs are basically playing a game in the real world, and suspending your disbelief long enough that you are in an alternate reality. The idea is that fiction should blend seamlessly into life.
Maybe it means that you don't know the difference between ADHD and Asperger's?
As much as I support the freedom of information, you have to admire German privacy laws (Datenschutz). Selling your cell phone calls with location? Not a problem in Germany, for good reason.
Basically, the man has a right to have his identity protected in Germany. No, they can't censor the internet, but they can make their position as clear as possible, and I kind of support them standing up to the constant stripping away of privacy that occurs on the internet.
Slashdotters, you always care so much about privacy - is it only when it's your own? And what do we gain by knowing his full last name, instead of the inital? It is a violation of the dead man's privacy and that of his family, with no gain whatsoever to us. The only way to walk the line between freedom of information and invasion of privacy is to be pragmatic in this regard, and recognize that we deserve to protect that information which is not of public interest.
You made the same mistake as vegetasaiyajin - just because it's "more than 10%" doesn't mean it's 1/9, or 1/8, or anything else. All the article says is "more than 10%" - concluding it must be 1 in 9 is as valid as concluding it's 1 in 5, or 1 in 2. For crying out loud, if you're trying to correct a correction, try being RIGHT.
Your reasoning is wrong, actually. Just because 1/9 > 10% doesn't mean that "more than 10%" (which is all the article says) is automatically 1 in 9. Heck, 1/2 > 10%, but "more than 10%" does not entail 1 in 2. There's no evidence that "1 in 9" is anything other than sloppy editors.
Think before you post.
It seems that as Google encourages developers to write windows-only plugins, and GDS comes to rely on third-party plugins for functionality, it'll become that much more difficult to ever see GDS on OS X or linux. Of course, OS X has Spotlight, but it looks like Google is gunning for more than just desktop search, and instead providing a platform that ties Google services and the Desktop together. (Those looking for a GoogleOS - this is probably the closest we're going to get.)
If Yahoo! gets serious with Konfabulator, it could provide a similar service, but in a cross-platform manner. Likely? Perhaps not. But Yahoo! seems to be shaking it's past history of Windows-only support and moving towards platform independence, while Google is bringing out more and more Windows-only products (GDS, Accelerator, Earth). Just another reason that Google seems to be losing geek mindshare while Yahoo! is gaining it. Just look at the rising number of comments on slashdot that are questioning Google's benevolence, or supporting Yahoo!'s newfound drive to openness - flawed though slashdot may be, the comments give you a good barometer for the geek world.
The next revolution in pointer control may be when you don't need to use an imprecise limb for movement. Eye-follow technologies exist already, but when you complain that your hands are imprecise... well, you'd be surprised by how imprecise your eyes are. Your eyes are moving all the time, and even if you had very, very good control over them, I doubt you would ever rival the precision of physically placing an object at a point with your hand.
I mean, I shouldn't be surprised, but I am. It seems liek 90% of the people commenting didn't RTFA, or didn't have their brains installed at the time. This isn't a secure banking system - it is, as one person pointed out, probably better described as OpenHandle. You sign in ONCE, and from that site, you tell it which other sites can authenticate from your identity site. Then, these sites know who you are. They don't get your password, or anything, they just get a temporary key to verify that you're you. Any site can fake it, that's not the point. The point is that you have participating sites where you would want to now have to sign in every time you want to comment. It helps prevent lock-in to blogs etc - imagine, for example, you sign in to slashdot, and then you can use the same handle without having to create accounts and sign in at other blogging services. THAT's the idea. It's not a trust net, or a passport-like system, it's just so that sites that want to play by the rules can provide people with a convenient way to identify themselves. That's ALL.
It's not just getting paid to do it - having access to Google's codebase and infrastructure would allow you to do "pet projects" that simply wouldn't be possible on your own.
You're missing the point. He's talking not about the Linux kernel, but GNU/Linux as a desktop operating system and the applications you run on it (which is a perfectly valid use of the term "Linux", since everyone knows what is meant). In this sense, yes, Linux does have something to do with playing MP3s.
I don't care if YOU personally configured your debian system. I run Gentoo with Ratpoison and a few aterms - big whoop. The point is that the AVERAGE USER will find Linux systems (yes, this includes applications) less responsive than WinXP.
Read the article - and read the post you're replying to thoroughly, for that matter.
Yes, I agree - under linux, at least you have choice. I choose to run Ratpoison on Gentoo, and it's phenomenally fast. No quibbles. But the point the author was making was that in bloating the default desktop for the AVERAGE user, we loose out on a huge market: outdated machines that could be converted to linux boxen. Sure, I still use ancient machines and have a working linux box, but it would not suffice for the needs of an average user desktop. KDE and GNOME, the only real contenders as far as replacing windows goes, have system requirements that in some cases outstrip those of windows. What worries me is: it's precisely KDE and GNOME that aren't really targeted and the hardcore geeks, those most likely to have state-of-the-art hardware, so they should be more geared towards efficiency.
Yes, we can choose, and you can always pare down a linux machine to the console - but that's not the issue here. If you think it is, you're slightly missing the point of the article, which I would encourage you to read.
...or divide and conquer. It's very strange that people seem to need to lash out so violently. From what I've read of the article (pages 1 and 2, since the rest is lost to slashdotting) the article seems to be relatively non-inflammatory.
Of course, this means we need to start attacking him for DARING to even SUGGEST that, yes there are things about BSD that Linux people could stand to understand. I'm personally a contended Gentoo Linux user, and I disagree with the idea in BSD of writing code that anyone can simply use without giving something back. Heck, I wouldn't work for Microsoft for money, I sure as heck won't do it for free! But that sort of brings up the issue that, for the most part, Linux people tend to care more about the political/ethical issues of code that BSDers, who seem to be more down-to-earth realists. Gross generalization - perhaps. Again, just my impression, just as the article is merely the author's impression.
So divide and conquer. Get the free unices to squabble amongst themselves as much as possible, and it's harder for them to threaten more entrenched OSes. Or at least, it seems that way to me. What I'm trying to say is: while the differences between BSD and Linux (and, indeed, between the different BSDs and linux distros) are what make us so strong (nobody likes monoculture), this excessive fighting really is useless. Moreover, I think the people who get all radical about these things tend to hurt the cause more (in terms of broad adoption) than helping. If you feel like preaching to convince people to try your OS - don't. The straightforward, YMMV, choose-what's-best-for-you explanation has helped me convince many people to try free software alternatives. A drop of honey catches more flies than a bucket of gall...
Some do, some don't. Get over it. Personally, I'd like to see more articles of this type. And maybe some more reconciliation between the free unices.
But then, if we didn't have flame wars, I guess it wouldn't be slashdot, eh?
Yes, my university uses Chalk, a product by Blackboard. It was deployed last year, and horrified us all. I will grant that, to the best of my knowlege, no open-source alternative exists, but to say that this is supposedly quality software is mind-boggling.
Clearly, the author does not think very highly of the students who attend a supposedly exclusive university. A shame indeed. Despite the fact that I have little love for Princeton in my heart, I'm pretty sure that a few of their CS majors could whip up something better than Chalk in a couple of months.
It does, however, raise the issue that a free software alternative does not exist in most of these cases. This situation would be easily remedied if the university opted to have an opensource project developed.
Oh, and the best part of the article was that the entire point was likening free software to the Nigerian scam... now what is it precisely that the open-source community is trying to scam, I wonder?