I had an '84 Cadillac that also had this feature. I had a readout of current and average gas mileage; it'd also calculate how far you could go on the amount of gas in the tank, based on the average mileage. You're right, it was depressing. I'm not sure why they even put that in... does the average Cadillac owner really give a fuck about efficiency?
1) First: As the other guy pointed out, the GPL is very clear on that point. Second: if you're worried about re-distribution, it would make more sense to ban all closed-source software, since its licensing terms are much more restrictive than anything in the OSS world. Third: the GPL isn't the only open license out there, so even if your argument made sense, it would only apply to the GPL, not to the others.
2) There are companies out there that make a lot of money by providing support for open-source software. Red Hat, Sun, Novell, IBM, MySQL... you've heard of them, right?
Yeah, I know all that. That was a rhetorical question.
My point was this: patents are a restriction of the free market. Which doesn't necessarily mean they're a bad thing, but arguing for patent enforcement from a "market knows best" position is kind of silly.
All right, I think someone's confused. Java doesn't use any native GUI toolkits, except in AWT. (Not counting basic stuff like drawing windows.) And first of all, I'm pretty sure that Apple's implementation of AWT is based on Carbon, not Cocoa; second, nobody in their right mind uses AWT anymore. It's been unofficially deprecated ever since Swing came out. I'd be very surprised if NeoOffice used AWT for anything.
I've had very few banking errors using ATMs and I'm quite sure that I am not the only user on the system when I do use them. Why would this company have any trouble with this kind of operation? Is it because there is no accounting so they don't bother to get it right?
Yeah, accountability is key. If there's money missing from your account, you WILL raise a stink. If your vote wasn't counted, you won't even know about it.
The other reason: the ATM company doesn't actually maintain the database, the bank does that. An ATM is just a database client, which only has to handle one transaction at a time. Much harder to screw up. (At least, that's my understanding of it. I've never worked on banking systems.)
Where in Central NY are you? I'm in Ithaca, and I've had RR for a few years now, at the same address. The reliability is decent, and they haven't raised prices, but I haven't noticed this bandwidth increase that you speak of. Which to me is a bad sign. In this business, if you're not moving forward, you're falling behind.
almost any professional job will require that you take one when you begin the job, and you'll also be required to take random, surprise tests after that, usually on about a yearly basis.
Bullshit. I've worked plenty of jobs in the US, and I've never taken a drug test. I did turn down some job opportunities because they required drug testing, but the number of those was rather small, and frankly, none of them were very attractive anyway.
It's not as common among unskilled jobs, but still not unheard of.
From what I've seen, the skill level has nothing to do with it. The main two patterns that I did notice:
1. It's much more common at government agencies and large corporations; 2. If an organization does do it, then the top managers are usually exempt.
I'm not sure what the term free speech means in Canada, but down here in the U.S. it means that the government is not allowed to suppress Constitutionally-protected speech (which it does anyway, but that's a topic for another day.) It does not mean that we aren't allowed to suppress each other.
No. "Free speech" means free speech - it means that nobody can suppress it. It's a concept that exists independently of any laws or constitutions. The First Amendment defines one aspect of it, but it's not a comprehensive definition. And it wasn't ever meant to be. Hint: read the 9th Amendment sometime.
but given the state of the world i am really disturbed by jokes on this particular topic.
Hey, if you can't joke about an autocratic dictatorship that covers one fifth of the world's landmass, what can you joke about? What really pisses me off, though, is the general lameness of the jokes.
The whole problem with e-voting is in transparency of the process. Does Open Source inside such a machine change that? Of course it changes it. Open source doesn't guarantee transparency, it's just one of the basic prerequisites for having transparency. You still have to verify the DB against the paper trail, audit the software that was used to compile the code, audit the hardware, etc.
I don't know where the option is either, since I haven't tried the regular installation in a while, but you can download the Ubuntu "server" install CD. It installs Apache, PHP and MySQL - and no GUI.
Maybe the Debian installer has improved in the few years since I last used it, but I remember it was extremely user-hostile. It was asking me about things like the names of my ethernet, audio and disk controller chipsets (you know, stuff that every computer user should know off the top of his head). On the other hand, Debian supports a lot of oddball hardware platforms; Ubuntu only has versions for i386, AMD64 and PPC.
FOSS introduces potential problems, but those problems can be avoided with a little bit of common sense. I worked at a company that relied heavily on open source, so I know it can be done. It's not brain surgery.
You want to talk about "competitive advantage"? If your company has a blanket ban on FOSS, then you're severely limiting your competitiveness.
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I'm a Java guy too, and I'm totally with you, except for the 'insecure' part. What sort of security problems with desktop Java are you talking about?
I had an '84 Cadillac that also had this feature. I had a readout of current and average gas mileage; it'd also calculate how far you could go on the amount of gas in the tank, based on the average mileage. You're right, it was depressing. I'm not sure why they even put that in... does the average Cadillac owner really give a fuck about efficiency?
1) First: As the other guy pointed out, the GPL is very clear on that point. Second: if you're worried about re-distribution, it would make more sense to ban all closed-source software, since its licensing terms are much more restrictive than anything in the OSS world. Third: the GPL isn't the only open license out there, so even if your argument made sense, it would only apply to the GPL, not to the others.
2) There are companies out there that make a lot of money by providing support for open-source software. Red Hat, Sun, Novell, IBM, MySQL... you've heard of them, right?
You two have really beaten the hell out of that poor shipbuilding/shipsinking metaphor. Will you please leave it alone now? Enough, already.
Hear, hear. From now on, only baseball metaphors will be considered acceptable.
Not that it makes a damn bit of difference, but I should point out that the USA also has an "active communist party".
Yeah, I know all that. That was a rhetorical question.
My point was this: patents are a restriction of the free market. Which doesn't necessarily mean they're a bad thing, but arguing for patent enforcement from a "market knows best" position is kind of silly.
Yes, because lord knows a bunch of politicians are best folk to decide how much 'profit' a company needs, as opposed to the market
In this case, the market is the one doing the deciding. The Brazilians are going with the lowest bidder. So what's the problem?
All right, I think someone's confused. Java doesn't use any native GUI toolkits, except in AWT. (Not counting basic stuff like drawing windows.) And first of all, I'm pretty sure that Apple's implementation of AWT is based on Carbon, not Cocoa; second, nobody in their right mind uses AWT anymore. It's been unofficially deprecated ever since Swing came out. I'd be very surprised if NeoOffice used AWT for anything.
The electricity isn't the main point. From the article:
"It's not going to make an enormous amount of power -- its primarily a waste water treatment that has the added benefit of creating electricity,"
I've had very few banking errors using ATMs and I'm quite sure that I am not the only user on the system when I do use them. Why would this company have any trouble with this kind of operation? Is it because there is no accounting so they don't bother to get it right?
Yeah, accountability is key. If there's money missing from your account, you WILL raise a stink. If your vote wasn't counted, you won't even know about it.
The other reason: the ATM company doesn't actually maintain the database, the bank does that. An ATM is just a database client, which only has to handle one transaction at a time. Much harder to screw up. (At least, that's my understanding of it. I've never worked on banking systems.)
"One owes respect to the living. To the dead, one owes only truth." - some dead Frenchman
The iTunes store has plenty of indy music. It's just not advertised on the front page, so you have to know what you're looking for.
Where in Central NY are you? I'm in Ithaca, and I've had RR for a few years now, at the same address. The reliability is decent, and they haven't raised prices, but I haven't noticed this bandwidth increase that you speak of. Which to me is a bad sign. In this business, if you're not moving forward, you're falling behind.
almost any professional job will require that you take one when you begin the job, and you'll also be required to take random, surprise tests after that, usually on about a yearly basis.
Bullshit. I've worked plenty of jobs in the US, and I've never taken a drug test. I did turn down some job opportunities because they required drug testing, but the number of those was rather small, and frankly, none of them were very attractive anyway.
It's not as common among unskilled jobs, but still not unheard of.
From what I've seen, the skill level has nothing to do with it. The main two patterns that I did notice:
1. It's much more common at government agencies and large corporations;
2. If an organization does do it, then the top managers are usually exempt.
I'm not sure what the term free speech means in Canada, but down here in the U.S. it means that the government is not allowed to suppress Constitutionally-protected speech (which it does anyway, but that's a topic for another day.) It does not mean that we aren't allowed to suppress each other.
No. "Free speech" means free speech - it means that nobody can suppress it. It's a concept that exists independently of any laws or constitutions. The First Amendment defines one aspect of it, but it's not a comprehensive definition. And it wasn't ever meant to be. Hint: read the 9th Amendment sometime.
I can't think of any desktop applications that would really benefit from supporting multithreading
You have got to be kidding. Most desktop applications already use multithreading to some degree - especially if they do any network IO.
but given the state of the world i am really disturbed by jokes on this particular topic.
Hey, if you can't joke about an autocratic dictatorship that covers one fifth of the world's landmass, what can you joke about? What really pisses me off, though, is the general lameness of the jokes.
I'm something of a UNIX insider, and I can tell you that SCO is on to something [...]
Hold him back, he's desperate.
On Apple machines you have no hardware customization options, no games (as far as I know)
This is a joke, right?
do you know how hard it is to explain why you're using "The Gimp" or what "The Gimp" is?
I'm currently working on a next-generation graphics editing program called 'Broomstick Up The Ass'. Would you be interested in beta-testing it?
That's not quite true. Hillary has a longer track record. This makes it much easier to predict who she'll out to, and for how much.
(Of course, both of them would be preferable to the guy we have now, but that's setting the bar pretty low.)
I don't know where the option is either, since I haven't tried the regular installation in a while, but you can download the Ubuntu "server" install CD. It installs Apache, PHP and MySQL - and no GUI.
Maybe the Debian installer has improved in the few years since I last used it, but I remember it was extremely user-hostile. It was asking me about things like the names of my ethernet, audio and disk controller chipsets (you know, stuff that every computer user should know off the top of his head). On the other hand, Debian supports a lot of oddball hardware platforms; Ubuntu only has versions for i386, AMD64 and PPC.
OK, fine. You're not a "pirate". You're a "data duplicator". And the RIAA still wants to sue your ass.
FOSS introduces potential problems, but those problems can be avoided with a little bit of common sense. I worked at a company that relied heavily on open source, so I know it can be done. It's not brain surgery.
You want to talk about "competitive advantage"? If your company has a blanket ban on FOSS, then you're severely limiting your competitiveness.