It's not about religion or about not forgetting the past. It really isn't. There is an ongoing situation that remains today. We have now a whole generation of displaced people who grew up in refugee camps. The palestinian people are embargoed with all entrances and exits controlled by Israeli forces. Their government ministers can't even visit another country without Israel's permission and trade and supplies have been blocked as a means of punishing the Palestinian people. When the Palestinian people elected by a clear majority a government that the Israeli's didn't approve of (Hamas), trade was blocked, international assets frozen and money withdrawn (the Palestinians are not allowed financial independence in much the same way that a person pinned in a wrestling match is not allowed to get an arm free). Israel even bombed a power station to ensure that electricity became more expensive and unreliable.
Israel now supports an alternative government that it does approve of which has tried, with partial success, to overthrow the one that was elected. The militia of this government has even been allowed abroad so that they can receive free training from the US or UK military (I forget which, I think US). Hamas was elected because they proved more trustworthy to the Palestinian people who were tired of the corruption of the previous government, had been heavily involved in preserving order, keeping schools and surgeries going. Hamas were the ones that got that British journalist released earlier this year. But Hamas are not liked by the Israeli and US governments. Hence the punishment of the Palestinian people for electing them.
The deputy leader of Hamas indicated that they would be willing to negotiate peace and accept the state of Israel. That is inconvenient to Israel as it doesn't really help them denounce the group as terrorist. But when a majority of a people elect a party, you can't really say that they're a terrorist group and that friction with them is terrorism. It is friction with a country, and to negotiate peace you have to engage with them, not install a government that will say what you want them to say and pretend that it's the will of the people.
Now what in all that depends on religious differences or past wrongs? The greatest trick of the Israeli government is to say that they are synonymous with the jewish people. That to be jewish is to support the Israeli government and that to condemn the Israeli government for its collective inhumanity is to be against the jewish people. That's a lie and it's one that Israel has used to great effect over the last forty years. There are many deeply religious people on all sides that would welcome peace and co-existence in a city that is holy to all of them. But power and money keep getting in the way.
Yeah, I almost closed the tab when I saw that. It was only on closer reading that realised the idea is that you slot in an SD card and it works from that. I don't know if it would impact the performance with large PDFs, but I actually don't have a problem with it being based on SD cards. I just consider it an advantage that I can swap the memory out. For something that just displays static pages, I think it's actually fine.
DRM isn't the selling point, availibility of content in a compatible format easilly and legally is.
Granted. The post I was replying to had equated the two, which I do not concede. It was also incorrect to say that this was exclusive to the Kindle. The CyBook supports mobipocket which has quite a range of DRM'd books.
I don't necessarily disagree with your more general points (though I'm more optomistic about seeing DRM free books from big name authors), but I wanted to emphasize the context in which I was replying.
Well if you see the DRM on the Kindle as a selling point, then that does narrow the field (though the device I linked to does support MobiPocket which is one of the most popular DRM book formats, I'm told). However, DRM is a minus point to me. The frustration it can cause me can actually push a purchase into negative value to my life. There are alternatives to DRM. For example, I have purchased numerous PDF books with watermarks. And given that production and distribution costs fall to close to zero for the publisher, you can even dispense with security altogether and still make a healthy profit as BAEN books seem to do.
"Hypothetical" competitor to the kindle? There already are such devices which predate Amazon's own release as well. This one looks good. Again, a highish price but it looks better than Amazon's own (Linux support being one of, though not the top, reason for that). Sadly, like the Kindle, it has also sold out completely, but I'm seriously thinking of putting one on order.
Well in amongst the outraged accusations of anti-Google bias (amusing), I find a sensible reply that actually read my post. You make some very good points, best of which to me being the interface that Gmail offers. For myself, I almost never use webmail, instead carrying an encrypted pen drive with Thunderbird on it which I keep syncrhonised with my home system, so I've a tendancy to overlook things like the quality of the web-interface.
I don't know if the web-interface would meet your needs or not, but if you ever do need a non-free email account, I've never had any problem at all with Fasthosts.co.uk. I add this recommendation only because of the randomness of quality you mentioned. But I think we have different needs in an email service and Gmail may meet yours.
Not only what you said, but "Crazy People" exist amongst "Normal People." You don't have to track down every crazy person, you only have to ensure that the general mass of people are willing to turn them in or stop them themselves. Obviously when you support totalitarian regimes, the populations of those countries are much more inclined to turn a blind eye to those who would murder you.
>br?
The possibility that something I'm not aware of is happening has no bearing on whether I object to something that I am aware of. Might as well say not to object to someone telling me they stole my money because it's possible I've been robbed before and didn't know it.
My main concern is not the ads, but the spying. I don't like it. When you list Gmail as the least invasive alternative, you ignore that we can pay for our own email accounts. You can pay for an email service for less than £15.00 per year which most people can afford. I do not understand why people must have a free account when the cost of a professional service that you actually control is so low.
Correct me if I'm wrong (as if people wouldn't), but doesn't the Gmail system scan your emails so that it can send you targetted ads? Doesn't that make taking the piss out of Microsoft's security a lot hypocritical?
Windows 2000 leveraged upon the illegally-obtained Windows 95 monopoly, which was leveraged upon the illegally obtained MS-DOS monopoly. The quality of the operating system (if any) had nothing to do with success (I will agree that Windows 2000 was the last good Microsoft operating system).
Slight tangent, but it's not agreement to say that Windows 2000 was the last good operating system because I really don't see much difference between that and XP. XP was 2000 with a few tweaks and polishes (and as you noted, the eternal battle to keep WGA off it, which you are right is a complete PITA). But whether or not the operating systems were played up through monopolistic practices or not, there simply wasn't that much competition at the time. In 2001 I was using Linux as a primary operating system, dual booting 2000 when needed. Those of us who were able to do that were by far a minority, however. The only easy alternative for less technical home users and small businesses were Macs which were significantly more expensive and had less support in key areas (games and pirated copies of MS Office).
That's changed now. I have non-technical friends who are using Linux as their only OS and are very happy with it. Linux with KDE or Gnome was as free and available in 2001 as it is today. It is not correct to say that Windows took over the market place without regard to quality. 2000 and XP had flaws but it was suitable for most people. Now if you want to say that the quality of 2000 and XP was the result of illegal practices, then this is a separate argument and not one I'd try to defend Microsoft on in many cases.
f it's more expensive and inferior then it'll be unsuccessful.
Then explain windows' success.
Because Windows 2000 and Windows XP weren't bad operating systems. Flaws, yes. Unsuitable for most users at home or at the office, no. I've not used Vista yet so cannot comment there, but there are reasons why the Windows OS's were successful. We have a decent alternative now , but we didn't a six years ago. Hence the current market position MS has. It's not the best solution for developing countries that have more options than people in the USA and Western Europe did, however. That is why I would like to see the OLPC with Linux become the de facto standard for a while.
Pussyfooting is presumably defined as destroying the economic and industrial structure of an entire country and killing hundreds of thousands of people, then. And might as well mention forcing the government to sign over its oil at grossly sub-market rates while we're on the subject.
Yes - a definite case of being too soft if ever there was one. Remind me again what right the US had to invade?
We have to consider at least a reasonable possibility that there are paid posters here, given that the means and motivation are certainly established. We don't have to envisage warehouses of people doing nothing but reading Slashdot. Encouragement of existing employees, allowing it as paid overtime, etc. would be all that was needed.
However, if there are such people, they have to at least consider whether their efforts are productive or counter-productive. There are plenty of smart people here on Slashdot and posting some FUD or something that you can't support is merely inviting someone to shoot you down, and not only that, but to shoot you down where everyone else can see the flaws in your arguments exposed and learn to repeat the arguments themselves in the "real world." Deploying FUD in an environment such as Slashdot is like providing a vaccination. We are the immune system of the technological world and here is where we come to learn about the latest diseases and how to counter them.
I've bought a few discs that I've had trouble playing. A couple of them I just took straight back to the shop for a refund, but the others I was able to get working after some irritating fiddling around. Playback from the discs either failed or had impossibly juddering sound. My copy program (K9copy) wouldn't rip either disc properly from one DVD drive but succeeded with my older drive so I was able to watch my DVD's directly from an iso file. All of the DVDs were from Optimum Releasing, so they lost out on a couple of sales when I took them back unplayed. The two I kept were Princess Mononoke and Pan's Labyrinth. I don't know what protection is on these DVD's but it's very irritating and I've learned to check whether a DVD is from Optimum Releasing before I buy it.
And I'm holding off buying music until I get a decent DRM free download store. There's 7digital but their selection is pretty poor for the MP3 stuff. Whoever is first to offer quality MP3's from mainstream artists is going to get a lot of money from me.
Okay, how's this for a security angle: If the USA doesn't keep up it's research, the terrorist countries are going to buy the WTC next time. Your country needs to sort out its priorities.
Because they like to appear intelligent and refuse to listen to advice from those "beneath them." Of course, these are the people who know what actually needs to be done.
Yeah, thanks. I meant to type dinosaurs, typed humanity by mistake. Always doing that.
"Dinosaurs" makes no sense. The dinosaurs presumably weren't using up all the natural resources and doing things we assume would be useful to any species that went to the trouble of bioforming a planet in such a manner, e.g. damaging the ozone layer or producing nuclear waste. Plus the presumed method of killing off the dinosaurs - big meteorite - was harmful to the biosphere generally. If the aliens were preparing the Earth for their arrival, then you have to wonder why they haven't already arrived and settled in because anything we have now in terms of planetary habitability, we had in the Cretacious Period.
In short, they're over one-hundered million years late. Ergo: dead theory.
Simple disproof of that theory - they would have eliminated humanity by this point. Damaging the existing environment and contributing nothing that a technologically more advanced species wouldn't already possess in a better version.
Out of interest, do you really actually do that? I can't remember the last time I divided a bill up between the people I was with, and we bothered with anything lower than a pound or dollar.
I tried to add a bill up for people. Not actually at the meal, but before hand where we were phoning ahead with our menu choices. The person organising the meal reacted not merely with a lack of interest, but an actual degree of low-level anger at the idea of working things out. And sadly, I believe the reason was a distrust of people doing arithmetic. I wasn't listened to, even though I could have told them what everything came to.
confess that you are mistaken/talking bollocks.:-)
The latter. Sorry about that. It's been a while and I mis-remembered my history. Mea doofus!;) The essential point remains the same though. As regards to the others who commented on four being in there, it was ill phrased. 100 by 4 is easy. But the point was that compared to 240 it leaves you with a much less useful number. Further mental arithmetic with the 60 is better than with 25. 60 has factors of 2,3,4,5,6,8, 10 and 12, 20 and 30 (yeah - I've gone into factors that are multiples of each other but that's still valid for demonstrating real word ease of use where these numbers will occur). 25 has factors of, uh, 5.
Decimalisation is over-rated anyway. People think it makes all the sums easier. Does in some ways, but for everyday life, other systems are easier. We used to have 120 pence to the pound in the UK. Much simpler when divvying up the bill at restaurants. Try dividing 100 by three people, four people, six people. Now try it with 120 or multiples thereof. But what about five and ten? Yeah - much harder with 120 (sarcasm).
Anyway, this ignoring the leap second is sounds like the usual case of wishful thinking you get between engineers and the customer when the customer has some niggling little requirement that spoils the engineer's elegant little solution. I'm sorry, but if I have to have some special case code because my client wants the search tool to work differently on the news page than it does on the rest of the pages (the bastard), then the world's scientists and engineers can bloody well have to model their customer requirements correctly. Especially when the specs have come directly from Reality. That's a pretty important customer.
Slashdot Mirror
It's not about religion or about not forgetting the past. It really isn't. There is an ongoing situation that remains today. We have now a whole generation of displaced people who grew up in refugee camps. The palestinian people are embargoed with all entrances and exits controlled by Israeli forces. Their government ministers can't even visit another country without Israel's permission and trade and supplies have been blocked as a means of punishing the Palestinian people. When the Palestinian people elected by a clear majority a government that the Israeli's didn't approve of (Hamas), trade was blocked, international assets frozen and money withdrawn (the Palestinians are not allowed financial independence in much the same way that a person pinned in a wrestling match is not allowed to get an arm free). Israel even bombed a power station to ensure that electricity became more expensive and unreliable.
Israel now supports an alternative government that it does approve of which has tried, with partial success, to overthrow the one that was elected. The militia of this government has even been allowed abroad so that they can receive free training from the US or UK military (I forget which, I think US). Hamas was elected because they proved more trustworthy to the Palestinian people who were tired of the corruption of the previous government, had been heavily involved in preserving order, keeping schools and surgeries going. Hamas were the ones that got that British journalist released earlier this year. But Hamas are not liked by the Israeli and US governments. Hence the punishment of the Palestinian people for electing them.
The deputy leader of Hamas indicated that they would be willing to negotiate peace and accept the state of Israel. That is inconvenient to Israel as it doesn't really help them denounce the group as terrorist. But when a majority of a people elect a party, you can't really say that they're a terrorist group and that friction with them is terrorism. It is friction with a country, and to negotiate peace you have to engage with them, not install a government that will say what you want them to say and pretend that it's the will of the people.
Now what in all that depends on religious differences or past wrongs? The greatest trick of the Israeli government is to say that they are synonymous with the jewish people. That to be jewish is to support the Israeli government and that to condemn the Israeli government for its collective inhumanity is to be against the jewish people. That's a lie and it's one that Israel has used to great effect over the last forty years. There are many deeply religious people on all sides that would welcome peace and co-existence in a city that is holy to all of them. But power and money keep getting in the way.
Yeah, I almost closed the tab when I saw that. It was only on closer reading that realised the idea is that you slot in an SD card and it works from that. I don't know if it would impact the performance with large PDFs, but I actually don't have a problem with it being based on SD cards. I just consider it an advantage that I can swap the memory out. For something that just displays static pages, I think it's actually fine.
Granted. The post I was replying to had equated the two, which I do not concede. It was also incorrect to say that this was exclusive to the Kindle. The CyBook supports mobipocket which has quite a range of DRM'd books.
I don't necessarily disagree with your more general points (though I'm more optomistic about seeing DRM free books from big name authors), but I wanted to emphasize the context in which I was replying.
Well if you see the DRM on the Kindle as a selling point, then that does narrow the field (though the device I linked to does support MobiPocket which is one of the most popular DRM book formats, I'm told). However, DRM is a minus point to me. The frustration it can cause me can actually push a purchase into negative value to my life. There are alternatives to DRM. For example, I have purchased numerous PDF books with watermarks. And given that production and distribution costs fall to close to zero for the publisher, you can even dispense with security altogether and still make a healthy profit as BAEN books seem to do.
"Hypothetical" competitor to the kindle? There already are such devices which predate Amazon's own release as well. This one looks good. Again, a highish price but it looks better than Amazon's own (Linux support being one of, though not the top, reason for that). Sadly, like the Kindle, it has also sold out completely, but I'm seriously thinking of putting one on order.
Well in amongst the outraged accusations of anti-Google bias (amusing), I find a sensible reply that actually read my post. You make some very good points, best of which to me being the interface that Gmail offers. For myself, I almost never use webmail, instead carrying an encrypted pen drive with Thunderbird on it which I keep syncrhonised with my home system, so I've a tendancy to overlook things like the quality of the web-interface.
I don't know if the web-interface would meet your needs or not, but if you ever do need a non-free email account, I've never had any problem at all with Fasthosts.co.uk. I add this recommendation only because of the randomness of quality you mentioned. But I think we have different needs in an email service and Gmail may meet yours.
Not only what you said, but "Crazy People" exist amongst "Normal People." You don't have to track down every crazy person, you only have to ensure that the general mass of people are willing to turn them in or stop them themselves. Obviously when you support totalitarian regimes, the populations of those countries are much more inclined to turn a blind eye to those who would murder you. >br?
The possibility that something I'm not aware of is happening has no bearing on whether I object to something that I am aware of. Might as well say not to object to someone telling me they stole my money because it's possible I've been robbed before and didn't know it.
My main concern is not the ads, but the spying. I don't like it. When you list Gmail as the least invasive alternative, you ignore that we can pay for our own email accounts. You can pay for an email service for less than £15.00 per year which most people can afford. I do not understand why people must have a free account when the cost of a professional service that you actually control is so low.
Correct me if I'm wrong (as if people wouldn't), but doesn't the Gmail system scan your emails so that it can send you targetted ads? Doesn't that make taking the piss out of Microsoft's security a lot hypocritical?
Slight tangent, but it's not agreement to say that Windows 2000 was the last good operating system because I really don't see much difference between that and XP. XP was 2000 with a few tweaks and polishes (and as you noted, the eternal battle to keep WGA off it, which you are right is a complete PITA). But whether or not the operating systems were played up through monopolistic practices or not, there simply wasn't that much competition at the time. In 2001 I was using Linux as a primary operating system, dual booting 2000 when needed. Those of us who were able to do that were by far a minority, however. The only easy alternative for less technical home users and small businesses were Macs which were significantly more expensive and had less support in key areas (games and pirated copies of MS Office).
That's changed now. I have non-technical friends who are using Linux as their only OS and are very happy with it. Linux with KDE or Gnome was as free and available in 2001 as it is today. It is not correct to say that Windows took over the market place without regard to quality. 2000 and XP had flaws but it was suitable for most people. Now if you want to say that the quality of 2000 and XP was the result of illegal practices, then this is a separate argument and not one I'd try to defend Microsoft on in many cases.
Because Windows 2000 and Windows XP weren't bad operating systems. Flaws, yes. Unsuitable for most users at home or at the office, no. I've not used Vista yet so cannot comment there, but there are reasons why the Windows OS's were successful. We have a decent alternative now , but we didn't a six years ago. Hence the current market position MS has. It's not the best solution for developing countries that have more options than people in the USA and Western Europe did, however. That is why I would like to see the OLPC with Linux become the de facto standard for a while.
Pussyfooting is presumably defined as destroying the economic and industrial structure of an entire country and killing hundreds of thousands of people, then. And might as well mention forcing the government to sign over its oil at grossly sub-market rates while we're on the subject.
Yes - a definite case of being too soft if ever there was one. Remind me again what right the US had to invade?
What makes a political rally illegal?
We have to consider at least a reasonable possibility that there are paid posters here, given that the means and motivation are certainly established. We don't have to envisage warehouses of people doing nothing but reading Slashdot. Encouragement of existing employees, allowing it as paid overtime, etc. would be all that was needed.
However, if there are such people, they have to at least consider whether their efforts are productive or counter-productive. There are plenty of smart people here on Slashdot and posting some FUD or something that you can't support is merely inviting someone to shoot you down, and not only that, but to shoot you down where everyone else can see the flaws in your arguments exposed and learn to repeat the arguments themselves in the "real world." Deploying FUD in an environment such as Slashdot is like providing a vaccination. We are the immune system of the technological world and here is where we come to learn about the latest diseases and how to counter them.
Bring on the FUD!
I've bought a few discs that I've had trouble playing. A couple of them I just took straight back to the shop for a refund, but the others I was able to get working after some irritating fiddling around. Playback from the discs either failed or had impossibly juddering sound. My copy program (K9copy) wouldn't rip either disc properly from one DVD drive but succeeded with my older drive so I was able to watch my DVD's directly from an iso file. All of the DVDs were from Optimum Releasing, so they lost out on a couple of sales when I took them back unplayed. The two I kept were Princess Mononoke and Pan's Labyrinth. I don't know what protection is on these DVD's but it's very irritating and I've learned to check whether a DVD is from Optimum Releasing before I buy it.
And I'm holding off buying music until I get a decent DRM free download store. There's 7digital but their selection is pretty poor for the MP3 stuff. Whoever is first to offer quality MP3's from mainstream artists is going to get a lot of money from me.
Okay, how's this for a security angle: If the USA doesn't keep up it's research, the terrorist countries are going to buy the WTC next time. Your country needs to sort out its priorities.
Revoking the keys will be a bastard!
Because they like to appear intelligent and refuse to listen to advice from those "beneath them." Of course, these are the people who know what actually needs to be done.
Personally, I think we should all write and complain to Alistair Darling. Hang on, I've got his address right here.
Yeah, thanks. I meant to type dinosaurs, typed humanity by mistake. Always doing that.
"Dinosaurs" makes no sense. The dinosaurs presumably weren't using up all the natural resources and doing things we assume would be useful to any species that went to the trouble of bioforming a planet in such a manner, e.g. damaging the ozone layer or producing nuclear waste. Plus the presumed method of killing off the dinosaurs - big meteorite - was harmful to the biosphere generally. If the aliens were preparing the Earth for their arrival, then you have to wonder why they haven't already arrived and settled in because anything we have now in terms of planetary habitability, we had in the Cretacious Period.
In short, they're over one-hundered million years late. Ergo: dead theory.
Simple disproof of that theory - they would have eliminated humanity by this point. Damaging the existing environment and contributing nothing that a technologically more advanced species wouldn't already possess in a better version.
The latter. Sorry about that. It's been a while and I mis-remembered my history. Mea doofus!
240 was easier to work with than 100.
Decimalisation is over-rated anyway. People think it makes all the sums easier. Does in some ways, but for everyday life, other systems are easier. We used to have 120 pence to the pound in the UK. Much simpler when divvying up the bill at restaurants. Try dividing 100 by three people, four people, six people. Now try it with 120 or multiples thereof. But what about five and ten? Yeah - much harder with 120 (sarcasm).
Anyway, this ignoring the leap second is sounds like the usual case of wishful thinking you get between engineers and the customer when the customer has some niggling little requirement that spoils the engineer's elegant little solution. I'm sorry, but if I have to have some special case code because my client wants the search tool to work differently on the news page than it does on the rest of the pages (the bastard), then the world's scientists and engineers can bloody well have to model their customer requirements correctly. Especially when the specs have come directly from Reality. That's a pretty important customer.