I should be more specific about this statement. It's not so much each option such as Owncloud that dissapoints me, but the fact that syncing to a server is the standard way to deal with the problem. I'm sure owncloud does a fine job if that's the way you want to sync your contacts and I'd damn sure prefer it to syncing with google but it would be nice to be able to sync directly to a computer.
I was just looking into this myself so the timing of this/. artical is funny to me.
None the less, I find all of the options to be inadequate. I think the idea of syncing to servers is nice and suits some people, whether it is your own server or someone elses but whatever happended to being able to just sync to the one or two computers that you use on a daily basis? Nothing I know of really seems to do that with an Android phone. Even Apple iThings have that capability!!!!! Why can't someone roll(google, I'm looking at you) a decent way for this to be done with a stock Android phone. Even if they just wrote a spec that all Android releases would conform to then that would give third parties the ability to write programs to interact with the phone in that way. There would no doubt be useful programs written that were both Free/Libre software and non-free.
As of now though, my vote is to roll my own server to sync to for now. I don't want google/dropbox/RandomCompanyThatIsTheNext"BIG"Thing to have my data whenever they want it. I think there are some real privacy concerns with that idea in general. Not to mention to gives incentive to companies to take the user's control away from them just for the sake of maintaining subscriptions.
This isn't the first time that RMS has proposed something like this. He's talked about it since before he was aware of bitcoins and it stems from the problems presented by companies such as PayPal.
I think that people tend to forget just how much coding RMS HAS done in the past. From what I understand he has problems with his fingers that cause him a lot of pain when he spends too much time typing. He even had(and maybe still has) a small keyboard that he would connect to his notebook because the keys were easier to press and it hurt less. A person with that problem probably isn't capable of much coding anyway.
It's really easy for people to take stabs at RMS because he's quirky and doesn't always say or beleive the most popular things. It's funny because we want our politicians to be more real and honest but when people like RMS are real and honest we want them to be more like politicians.
If you feel this way then you need to let the W3C know. Join their mailing list and let them know how you feel. Right now they pretty much have a Netflix employee defending everything he can about DRM. The only people in opposition to it on that mailing list right now have a very small voice. Jump on and voice this opinion. Overwhelm them the way that we overwhelmed them with PIPA and SOPA.
I knew that much about it. I didn't know just how much of their software wasn't free software and actually didn't care that much to dig in and find out at the time. I might look into it some more though. I try to avoid non-free software.
I have one of their cameras in use as well. I didn't even try their program I just used ZoneMinder directly. That works pretty well actually. I couldn't do a direct video stream to the system and ended up running it through ffmpeg but it is still working well. My biggest complaint with the camera is the cheap plastic mount. If you use the camera outdoors then the wind blows the camera and causes a motion event. Other than that it's great for the price.
Yes. I strongly believe he is wrong on every substantial issue he raises. I think his use of copyright law to force sharing (the GPL) is a clever legal hack, but his desire to prioritize the "freedom" of systems over those systems actually doing anything useful is totally unreasonable.
You are entitled to your opinion. The fact of the matter, though, is that there are thousands(being conservative) of useful software packages that are free. Being free is a major priority but being free only matters when the software is useful. In fact RMS didn't even like Unix back when he started the GNU project but he realized that in order to have a really USEFUL system it needed to be portable. Unix was a good fit for that. Freedom was not good without a useful system and the same holds true today.
Software freedom is so much less importsant than other forms of freedom (freedom from slavery, freedom of speech, freedom of association, etc) in the real world that I can't take his writing seriously.
RMS himself has stated that software freedom takes a back seat to more important moral issues in the world. He knows this and you should too being that you've claimed to have read all of his essays.
Additionally, as more and more aspects of our daily lives are controlled by software this issue has become important. As Lawrence Lessig has written: "Code is Law".
Given his childish behavior, rant-laden writing style, and inability to express a coherent argument, I am sure the vast majority of software developers have never bothered to learn what his actual positions are.
I think much of that has to do with the fact that most people learn of Linux and want to know more. They do some research and stumble upon Linus Torvalds. Many never even hear of RMS until an article like this one is posted to./ or some other tech site. Most times it's just a forum to bash RMS for his eccentricity. It's the popular thing to do right now.
The only people who can stand to listen to him are those who forgive those traits because they already agree with what he says. You can't expect to grow a movement that way, even if your movement has a purpose that makes sense.
The movement grows based on its principles, not on the people that started it.
Bad hygiene is one thing, opinions and ideas are another. I think that everyone should leave this video out of discussions about real issues. All it does is detract from the topic under discussion. If you want to fixate on that video start a blog and talk about it all that you want.
Richard,
I know of all of the essays you've written but have never come across any detailed writings about your experiences in putting together the GNU project and writing different tools. Have you ever thought about describing your experiences and publishing those writings?
I'd be very interested in learning more about specific experiences you've had and specific problems you've encountered. Getting a perspective of what you were thinking when you encountered various problems and the thought process you used to solve these problems could be useful to other people when similar problems are encountered. Your general philosophy is well documented but I'm sure there are many technical problems you've been able to solve that many people don't know about or would like to know more about.
Thank you for your contributions to Free Software!
I'm not going to bother reading every post made here. The premise of the question is wrong and either needs to be rethought or have the wording corrected and re-posted. I'm seeing arguments here about patents. Who said IP was a patent? Could it be copyright? Maybe trademark? Do any of these seem to have anything to do with each other? No. Quit using the term Intellectual Property. If you mean copyright then refer to copyright. If you mean trademark then refer to it. Don't screw up the debate by confusing the issue from the beginning.
See RMS:
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html
"In that respect, Linux really needs to get its shit together."
"Linux" isn't a company, person or being it's a kernel. In what respect does it need to get it's shit together? If you don't like the way one distro does things quit bitchin and customize it or make your own.
"It is such a pain in the ass, the way they go out of their way, to make you go out of your way, just to get your pc to do what you want.."
They refers to who? RedHat? Slacwkare? Linus? I'm sorry if you don't understand the way a GNU/Linux system is setup and the difference between a Kernel and an OS but don't flip out about it being someone else's problem.
I also find it funny that you are okay with all the hell Microsoft puts you through that is completely out of your control but you have a problem with learning to configure and admin your own GNU/Linux system that IS in your control. ..I'm going to be even more harsh here but maybe you should just stick with Windows and be oblivious to anything that has to do with Linux if you're going to take that attitude with things.
"Someone unwilling to change has already reached their full potential".
"anything less just means they are falling behind."
Microsoft is not an innovator so I'm just not seeing how you figure that everyone else is falling behind. A wireless router is not a new concept so that doesn't put Microsoft, or Nintendo for that matter, ahead of the game.
Microsoft has been trying to out-do the free software community ever since Linux really started gaining ground. Even if they match the free software community it won't matter. Free software is made for people who don't want to be pinned down by EULA's and no matter how good Microsoft's products get, many of us won't switch.
If Linux is what inspires Microsoft to create better software then I'd say that is a pretty good example of how Linux is helping to improve software as a whole and I find it quite empowering to the free software movement. We're making a difference. The problem I see with Microsoft's approach is that they always puts a twist on things and find ways to charge extra for features that should be included with their software.
That's quite an interesting fact. I thought they had put great effort in making the GC easy to develop for. I remember Rogue Squadron taking very little time to develop for the Gamecube.
Are there any other companies that you know of having similar issues?
Everyone wants to jump to conclusions about what the simple statement "...will include Wi-Fi" implies. Nintendo is a company of innovation. With the wireless functionality they may very well be adding some very nice security features or non-standard functions. Think about people who live in large apartment buildings, and maybe don't have a broadband internet connection. Wouldn't it be great for a number of people in that building to connect their consoles through a wirelesss network(gamecube based) as opposed to dragging their consoles, and their tv's into the same area and setting up a network? What if they could simply turn them on, switch to the correct channels and locate each others system? I think this would be awesome. Of course, not to jump to conclusions, they may not add such a feature. That's just one of my hopes for the technology bundled with the system. Nintendo always seems to deliver something new. They don't just make tennis, or golf sims. They add an extra level of gaming too it. If you just want a tennis sim, wouldn't it make more sense to just get off your ass and play tennis?
I think it's good that Nintendo is willing to take risks in adding more to the gaming industry. But for some reason everyone loves to critisize them when they do.
By the way, the Cube controller is the most comfortable controller I've ever used. It may look funny but it fits like a glove. After playing my PS2 for a while and then going back to my Gamecube, I really appreciate the thought put into the controller design.
There are far to many configurations to generalize and say, "Linux is more secure than windows" or visa versa. And there are varying degrees of security that people will talk about. Some people are probably thinking of the permissions side of things for their desktop while others mean network security. As far as patches and how long it takes to release the updates; Why do you think a lot of people are still running in the 2.2 series of kernels? On top of that, the version of apache, the plug-ins they have installed and so on and so forth. Linux can have varying degrees of security depending on the configuration. Do we honestly think the newest offering from Red Hat is going to be sound? Just as we might ask the same question about the newest microsoft offering or the newest offering of the AmigaOS. There's no way a brand new piece of software won't have problems.
I thought the graphics and art in this game were great. Overall though, the gameplay was average. By the middle of the game I found myself trying to get through as fast as I could just because I expected a brilliant conclusion to the story. There wasn't one. The gameplay wasn't really too innovative, and the story ultimately didn't go anywhere. Kudos on the art however.
Slashdot Mirror
Hydrogen storage is inferior in terms of energy efficiency.
Hydrogen is not a better way to store energy for electric drive cars. You need to do more research if you really believe this.
I'm sure we can all guess what it is...
I should be more specific about this statement. It's not so much each option such as Owncloud that dissapoints me, but the fact that syncing to a server is the standard way to deal with the problem. I'm sure owncloud does a fine job if that's the way you want to sync your contacts and I'd damn sure prefer it to syncing with google but it would be nice to be able to sync directly to a computer.
I was just looking into this myself so the timing of this /. artical is funny to me.
None the less, I find all of the options to be inadequate. I think the idea of syncing to servers is nice and suits some people, whether it is your own server or someone elses but whatever happended to being able to just sync to the one or two computers that you use on a daily basis? Nothing I know of really seems to do that with an Android phone. Even Apple iThings have that capability!!!!! Why can't someone roll(google, I'm looking at you) a decent way for this to be done with a stock Android phone. Even if they just wrote a spec that all Android releases would conform to then that would give third parties the ability to write programs to interact with the phone in that way. There would no doubt be useful programs written that were both Free/Libre software and non-free.
As of now though, my vote is to roll my own server to sync to for now. I don't want google/dropbox/RandomCompanyThatIsTheNext"BIG"Thing to have my data whenever they want it. I think there are some real privacy concerns with that idea in general. Not to mention to gives incentive to companies to take the user's control away from them just for the sake of maintaining subscriptions.
This isn't the first time that RMS has proposed something like this. He's talked about it since before he was aware of bitcoins and it stems from the problems presented by companies such as PayPal. I think that people tend to forget just how much coding RMS HAS done in the past. From what I understand he has problems with his fingers that cause him a lot of pain when he spends too much time typing. He even had(and maybe still has) a small keyboard that he would connect to his notebook because the keys were easier to press and it hurt less. A person with that problem probably isn't capable of much coding anyway. It's really easy for people to take stabs at RMS because he's quirky and doesn't always say or beleive the most popular things. It's funny because we want our politicians to be more real and honest but when people like RMS are real and honest we want them to be more like politicians.
If you feel this way then you need to let the W3C know. Join their mailing list and let them know how you feel. Right now they pretty much have a Netflix employee defending everything he can about DRM. The only people in opposition to it on that mailing list right now have a very small voice. Jump on and voice this opinion. Overwhelm them the way that we overwhelmed them with PIPA and SOPA.
I knew that much about it. I didn't know just how much of their software wasn't free software and actually didn't care that much to dig in and find out at the time. I might look into it some more though. I try to avoid non-free software.
I have one of their cameras in use as well. I didn't even try their program I just used ZoneMinder directly. That works pretty well actually. I couldn't do a direct video stream to the system and ended up running it through ffmpeg but it is still working well. My biggest complaint with the camera is the cheap plastic mount. If you use the camera outdoors then the wind blows the camera and causes a motion event. Other than that it's great for the price.
Yes. I strongly believe he is wrong on every substantial issue he raises. I think his use of copyright law to force sharing (the GPL) is a clever legal hack, but his desire to prioritize the "freedom" of systems over those systems actually doing anything useful is totally unreasonable.
You are entitled to your opinion. The fact of the matter, though, is that there are thousands(being conservative) of useful software packages that are free. Being free is a major priority but being free only matters when the software is useful. In fact RMS didn't even like Unix back when he started the GNU project but he realized that in order to have a really USEFUL system it needed to be portable. Unix was a good fit for that. Freedom was not good without a useful system and the same holds true today.
Software freedom is so much less importsant than other forms of freedom (freedom from slavery, freedom of speech, freedom of association, etc) in the real world that I can't take his writing seriously.
RMS himself has stated that software freedom takes a back seat to more important moral issues in the world. He knows this and you should too being that you've claimed to have read all of his essays. Additionally, as more and more aspects of our daily lives are controlled by software this issue has become important. As Lawrence Lessig has written: "Code is Law".
Given his childish behavior, rant-laden writing style, and inability to express a coherent argument, I am sure the vast majority of software developers have never bothered to learn what his actual positions are.
I think much of that has to do with the fact that most people learn of Linux and want to know more. They do some research and stumble upon Linus Torvalds. Many never even hear of RMS until an article like this one is posted to ./ or some other tech site. Most times it's just a forum to bash RMS for his eccentricity. It's the popular thing to do right now.
The only people who can stand to listen to him are those who forgive those traits because they already agree with what he says. You can't expect to grow a movement that way, even if your movement has a purpose that makes sense.
The movement grows based on its principles, not on the people that started it.
Bad hygiene is one thing, opinions and ideas are another. I think that everyone should leave this video out of discussions about real issues. All it does is detract from the topic under discussion. If you want to fixate on that video start a blog and talk about it all that you want.
Richard, I know of all of the essays you've written but have never come across any detailed writings about your experiences in putting together the GNU project and writing different tools. Have you ever thought about describing your experiences and publishing those writings? I'd be very interested in learning more about specific experiences you've had and specific problems you've encountered. Getting a perspective of what you were thinking when you encountered various problems and the thought process you used to solve these problems could be useful to other people when similar problems are encountered. Your general philosophy is well documented but I'm sure there are many technical problems you've been able to solve that many people don't know about or would like to know more about. Thank you for your contributions to Free Software!
There are laws that forbid that sort of thing. Where there are not a limit imposed by a software license wouldn't do any good.
I'm not going to bother reading every post made here. The premise of the question is wrong and either needs to be rethought or have the wording corrected and re-posted. I'm seeing arguments here about patents. Who said IP was a patent? Could it be copyright? Maybe trademark? Do any of these seem to have anything to do with each other? No. Quit using the term Intellectual Property. If you mean copyright then refer to copyright. If you mean trademark then refer to it. Don't screw up the debate by confusing the issue from the beginning. See RMS: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html
I totally agree with you on this one. It's just their propaganda. They'll deliver it any way that they can.
Who allowed such a poorly written article to be posted?
"In that respect, Linux really needs to get its shit together." "Linux" isn't a company, person or being it's a kernel. In what respect does it need to get it's shit together? If you don't like the way one distro does things quit bitchin and customize it or make your own. "It is such a pain in the ass, the way they go out of their way, to make you go out of your way, just to get your pc to do what you want.." They refers to who? RedHat? Slacwkare? Linus? I'm sorry if you don't understand the way a GNU/Linux system is setup and the difference between a Kernel and an OS but don't flip out about it being someone else's problem. I also find it funny that you are okay with all the hell Microsoft puts you through that is completely out of your control but you have a problem with learning to configure and admin your own GNU/Linux system that IS in your control. . .I'm going to be even more harsh here but maybe you should just stick with Windows and be oblivious to anything that has to do with Linux if you're going to take that attitude with things.
"Someone unwilling to change has already reached their full potential".
This isn't news anymore. It's propaganda.
"anything less just means they are falling behind."
Microsoft is not an innovator so I'm just not seeing how you figure that everyone else is falling behind. A wireless router is not a new concept so that doesn't put Microsoft, or Nintendo for that matter, ahead of the game.
Microsoft has been trying to out-do the free software community ever since Linux really started gaining ground. Even if they match the free software community it won't matter. Free software is made for people who don't want to be pinned down by EULA's and no matter how good Microsoft's products get, many of us won't switch.
If Linux is what inspires Microsoft to create better software then I'd say that is a pretty good example of how Linux is helping to improve software as a whole and I find it quite empowering to the free software movement. We're making a difference. The problem I see with Microsoft's approach is that they always puts a twist on things and find ways to charge extra for features that should be included with their software.
That's quite an interesting fact. I thought they had put great effort in making the GC easy to develop for. I remember Rogue Squadron taking very little time to develop for the Gamecube. Are there any other companies that you know of having similar issues?
Everyone wants to jump to conclusions about what the simple statement "...will include Wi-Fi" implies. Nintendo is a company of innovation. With the wireless functionality they may very well be adding some very nice security features or non-standard functions. Think about people who live in large apartment buildings, and maybe don't have a broadband internet connection. Wouldn't it be great for a number of people in that building to connect their consoles through a wirelesss network(gamecube based) as opposed to dragging their consoles, and their tv's into the same area and setting up a network? What if they could simply turn them on, switch to the correct channels and locate each others system? I think this would be awesome. Of course, not to jump to conclusions, they may not add such a feature. That's just one of my hopes for the technology bundled with the system. Nintendo always seems to deliver something new. They don't just make tennis, or golf sims. They add an extra level of gaming too it. If you just want a tennis sim, wouldn't it make more sense to just get off your ass and play tennis?
I think it's good that Nintendo is willing to take risks in adding more to the gaming industry. But for some reason everyone loves to critisize them when they do.
By the way, the Cube controller is the most comfortable controller I've ever used. It may look funny but it fits like a glove. After playing my PS2 for a while and then going back to my Gamecube, I really appreciate the thought put into the controller design.
There are far to many configurations to generalize and say, "Linux is more secure than windows" or visa versa. And there are varying degrees of security that people will talk about. Some people are probably thinking of the permissions side of things for their desktop while others mean network security. As far as patches and how long it takes to release the updates; Why do you think a lot of people are still running in the 2.2 series of kernels? On top of that, the version of apache, the plug-ins they have installed and so on and so forth. Linux can have varying degrees of security depending on the configuration. Do we honestly think the newest offering from Red Hat is going to be sound? Just as we might ask the same question about the newest microsoft offering or the newest offering of the AmigaOS. There's no way a brand new piece of software won't have problems.
I thought the graphics and art in this game were great. Overall though, the gameplay was average. By the middle of the game I found myself trying to get through as fast as I could just because I expected a brilliant conclusion to the story. There wasn't one. The gameplay wasn't really too innovative, and the story ultimately didn't go anywhere. Kudos on the art however.