Here comes another one of my highly opinionated posts, and such as their nature, they seem to be downrated, but I must say this.
I have really lost respect for Daniel Robbins. Really. Actually, I've been working on a gentoo install off and on for the past couple of days and now I'm not even sure I should proceed. Why? Because the whole spirit of it has been tainted for me now. If I were to switch to debian as my primary distribution, I'm afraid that I would have to constantly hold back the bile in my throat and the insatiable desire from my body to puke.
Why you might ask? Maybe I should counter with a question of my own: What in the hell does he think he is going to accomplish?
Lets take a look of a quote from the article slashdot linked to: "helping Microsoft to understand Open Source and community-based projects." Why do you think they would want to understand open source and community based projects? I can think of one good reason. I think it was many-a warrior that once said, keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer. Another good quote is "understand your enemy, after understanding, go in for the attack" These ageless quotes would seem to apply here as well.
Open Source, and community based projects are the top of the crop of Microsofts competition right now. They've always talked in internal memo's about the dangers these have for microsoft, and have even tried to attack these dangers (ala Microsoft: Get the facts campaign)
I believe that this is a plot of microsoft to hide an insider so they can do some espionage, using Daniel Robbins as a mere pawn in the game. I can't believe he couldn't foresee this before he signed on to the company. Futhermore, I can't imagine WHY he would backstab his own community who has done nothing but serve him well, and aid in the attempts to compete with Linux and OSS. I know that work in IT has been hard to come by latley -- but really to stoop that low...
I must end this post by saying: I'm really disappointed in Daniel Robbins choice of career. Have fun with Windows, man.
"Sure, you'll be wasting electricity and may burn out the refridgerator compressor because its running all the time, but at least you won't be buying bags and bags of ice and wasting water.
And hell, if the landlord is paying for the fridge, you're home free!
The problem here is that I can't tell if I'm being sarcastic..."
He isn't buying ice, he's only wasting water. University of Waterloo has icecold water around the dorms. The pipes are underground where its very moist and cold. His tap water is like ice water, right out of the tap! Don't even need ice to make ice tea!
Now, all he needs to make a system that is water-use-friendly, 2 trashcans, 1 sump pump, and a full thing of powder chlorine (for the algea you know)
Then, he can put the trashcan outside, put the water exiting the house near nearby ground, bury some copper pipes around in the backyard to cool it down underground (works for the water to the house, should work that way too) then have the water exit in a waste trash can.
Have the sump pump pump the new cold water back up in to the room after the siphoned water fills up said trash can (they're pumps made to kick in when water gets to a certain level.. in this case to the top of the waste trash can)
Add chlorine in to the system to keep it clean of microorganisms.
Presto! You have a completley self contained system that only uses electricity to pump water back upstairs when the waste trashcan gets full (e.g. when the trashcan in his room is almost empty)
"Still uses energy, mind you, but that takes care of the ice water.
Also, I thought that routing the water OUT was a bad idea. Why not catch the water in another bin, or in jugs, and freeze that? Makes SO much more sense..."
Actually, I've made a system EXACTLY like the one he has, but better. I used salt in my bin, which helps coolong another 15 degrees or so.
I also have outside my window a collection bin, and a cheap "sump pump" type of pump, so after the water gets to a certain level (top of the bin) it pumps the water back in to my room.
I also took and dismantled an old mini-fridge, straightened the coils out and put the "freezer plate" part of the fridge in the water, and the heating coils outside of the window.
It works EXCELLENT, and the cold air the fan blows is ice cold.
It's almost as good as a real air conditioner, it's just not all contained and of course (when it rains) I have to bring the parts in.
I run it nearly all the time. It works great. Just a few pointers for people who wish to really try this.
Actually, I think astronauts aren't required to have a license to broadcast, they have a special status.
I know for a fact that they're the only ones who are exempt from the rule that says you can't play music over the air. (Studied for tech exam a year or two ago)
"As far as I am concerned a price less than that is really unfair to the artists and does act as a disincentive for others to produce music for a living."
What's wrong with having a dayjob and producing music on the side? With all the bands that work full time with little good music as results, they might as well.
One time people use to play music for the joy of it, rather than trying to sell 1.3 million CDs within a week of an album being released. (Thus making huge profits)
Lets have a little less 'American Idols' and a few more people playing for the love of music. Music was better that way. At least I think so.
"1)I refuse to pay for DRM on principle 2)I can't use it on my linux box anyway"
Gee, same points for me too, DRM won't work in linux, I've tried. I'd be willing to pay but, whoops, no linux support. That goes down the shitter since I don't have access to a windows machine in my home.
" and thus serves no purpose other than reducing public access to information and art."
Duh. That's the whole purpose of this. Lobbiests like to take away rights and access to information and art. It's only to be expected, and it's impossible to prevent. It's just like George Orewell predicted.
It doesn't matter what country we talk about here, all of the worlds governments are corrupt. US, and Europe the most.
Most people think Afghanistan and such is corrupt but they're nothing compared to us. Our governments like to make the public think they have freedoms, and like to take a few away every day. Afghanistan and such just trys to scare the people in to not using their freedoms, which is a recipe for eventual civil war.
No no, our governments are much more intelligent in to give people the illuzion there is freedom -- that way if a few smart individuals figure it out and try to upbring a civil war, nobody will follow them -- then they can easily be labeled as terrorists and be brought down.
Just remember, a frog will never jump out of the boiling pot if you heat it up slowly -- if you heat it up fast he'll jump right out.
We are all frogs, and we're in the pot right now -- is it heating up?
"Want to sue? Sorry, but you've probably already given up that right under an "arbitration" clause. One could try a class-action suit, I suppose, though that avenue's been largely gutted by the "Class Action Fairness Act"."
Doesn't matter. If enough people get in on it, then the it will still have consequences for the company.
"So what if the industry looses a few more dollars to identity theft? They'll just raise interest rates, late fees, and overlimit charges to make up for it."
Then people will flock to the one cheapest one left who hasn't been sued yet. This will be an award and an example to that one that hasn't lost info yet, to not do so in the future.
"BTW - I write this as someone who has a mortgage with Citigroup so my data could be at risk here. However, my knee is not jerking violently, (yet)."
It should be, its about the third time slashdot has posted an article about citibank in the past few months. If these aren't dupes, then surely you're information has been in the bunch.
Plus, no customer of citibank in the nation's knee is jerking (yet.) Until someone does some knee jerking, class action, or something of the sort, this will be seen as an acceptable business practice to citibank.
"it should be possible for one to argue that, as they had not seen (and had little to no means of seeing) the EULA at the time of doctoring the CD, that they were unaware of the conditions imposed therein"
I love your idea there. Unfortunately you *would* have been aware of the EULA at that point. A copy of the EULA is distributed on the inside of the box in a booklet with every copy of Windows, as well as on the CD.
It would never hold up in court, unless you claimed 'I didn't know there was a EULA in "Windows XP Home - Getting Started' or you could also argue "Well I downloaded XP Home off the net, how should I have known it had an EULA?"
I think i'd be the first to bring up copyright issues.
Will the remakes be copyright by the remakers, or the original authors of the song? (long since dead)
This is definately a grey area as you're ripping off someone elses score (albiet they're dead) and you have no right to claim the reproducted score as your own.
"Some cities (at least it's the case here in Vancouver) have zoning bylaws that don't allow regular wood (or, by implication, paper) burning fireplaces and stoves to be installed anymore. This may not be feasible."
Well Officer Lucky, I was just trying to comply with Federal legistration. I'm in a catch 22. Will the city pay for my fine if I violate this act?
Check out this link Officer Lucky (http://www.churchstreet-technology.com/Reconstruc tion.htm) they reconstruct cross-shredded paper, shredded paper, or any type of damaged paper in to complete documents. Shredding paper is no longer safe.
" $2500 doesn't seem to be a very harsh punishment for my personal data being compromised when the FCC can fine companies $11000 per do not call violation."
The government isn't concerned with fortune 500's disposal of information, but the mom and pop shops more than anything else. I was able to see the meeting on TV and thats what they said.
They actually brought the donotcall bill up, and they said thats because fortune 500's make calls to homes more than mom and pops. -Shrugs-
" Same problem as always with market forces instead of regulation; it relies on an informed and interested public allowing the problem to affect their purchasing decision."
You hit the nail on the head. Since when, has Americans been an "informed and interested public"?
"While this could be seen as a good idea, why not let people make the decision NOT to do business with companies that have bad business practices and lose your personal information? why force every business to abide by these wasteful laws because a few companies fuck up?
so a few people mess up and we are going to hit EVERY business owner with a fine (increased costs of doing business due to destroying docs = fine)?
let the people decide who they do business with, company X loses peoples info, company X goes out of business because people lose faith in them. Austrian economics at work!"
Because this isn't Australia this is America. People here are too fucking stupid and they'd go with farmers insurence anyway. Most of the people wouldn't even know such a thing happened because they don't read "News for nerds, stuff that matters"
"Just another embarrassment to Microsoft's security push."
Another embarassment for who "Nerds" who read the popular "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters. -- A popular technology news website"?
That's like having a Christian missionary meeting in a city that only allows Christians to live there.
Do you actually think wind of this news about Microsoft will reach real news sources such as MSNBC, FOX, and others? Yes, this article is on cnn's website, but I'm talking about newspaper and TV.
The amount of people who have power (e.g. corporate types who make decisions) are more likley to be reading the Wallstreet Journal than logging on at night to http://cnn.com/
So after all, this isn't an embarassment to Microsoft at all, as nobody important will ever see this article.
The burden shouldn't be on anybody. I have a friend in NY who is literally a millionare for doing recycling of old computer parts. He's got an entire warehouse full of old equipment.
He's told me I can come anytime and pick out anything I want as long as I can carry it out. I got a whole bunch of UPS's and not-too-old laptops last time I visited.
He's rich, he's happy, and he has a warehouse full of equipment. He's told me he'd be more than able to afford cost of recycling if they put the cost on him and not the consumer.
Why should consumers have to pay so the recycle companys dont?
"Second, have a good steel skeleton, so even if all the walls come down, the plane can land. And bolt the chairs down."
The plane is made out of it's shitty skeleton so it can actually take off. If the whole damn plane was a lead mold, do you ever think it'd get off the ground?
Slashdot Mirror
Here comes another one of my highly opinionated posts, and such as their nature, they seem to be downrated, but I must say this.
I have really lost respect for Daniel Robbins. Really. Actually, I've been working on a gentoo install off and on for the past couple of days and now I'm not even sure I should proceed. Why? Because the whole spirit of it has been tainted for me now. If I were to switch to debian as my primary distribution, I'm afraid that I would have to constantly hold back the bile in my throat and the insatiable desire from my body to puke.
Why you might ask? Maybe I should counter with a question of my own: What in the hell does he think he is going to accomplish?
Lets take a look of a quote from the article slashdot linked to: "helping Microsoft to understand Open Source and community-based projects." Why do you think they would want to understand open source and community based projects? I can think of one good reason. I think it was many-a warrior that once said, keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer. Another good quote is "understand your enemy, after understanding, go in for the attack" These ageless quotes would seem to apply here as well.
Open Source, and community based projects are the top of the crop of Microsofts competition right now. They've always talked in internal memo's about the dangers these have for microsoft, and have even tried to attack these dangers (ala Microsoft: Get the facts campaign)
I believe that this is a plot of microsoft to hide an insider so they can do some espionage, using Daniel Robbins as a mere pawn in the game. I can't believe he couldn't foresee this before he signed on to the company. Futhermore, I can't imagine WHY he would backstab his own community who has done nothing but serve him well, and aid in the attempts to compete with Linux and OSS. I know that work in IT has been hard to come by latley -- but really to stoop that low...
I must end this post by saying: I'm really disappointed in Daniel Robbins choice of career. Have fun with Windows, man.
"Sure, you'll be wasting electricity and may burn out the refridgerator compressor because its running all the time, but at least you won't be buying bags and bags of ice and wasting water.
And hell, if the landlord is paying for the fridge, you're home free!
The problem here is that I can't tell if I'm being sarcastic..."
He isn't buying ice, he's only wasting water. University of Waterloo has icecold water around the dorms. The pipes are underground where its very moist and cold. His tap water is like ice water, right out of the tap! Don't even need ice to make ice tea!
Now, all he needs to make a system that is water-use-friendly, 2 trashcans, 1 sump pump, and a full thing of powder chlorine (for the algea you know)
Then, he can put the trashcan outside, put the water exiting the house near nearby ground, bury some copper pipes around in the backyard to cool it down underground (works for the water to the house, should work that way too) then have the water exit in a waste trash can.
Have the sump pump pump the new cold water back up in to the room after the siphoned water fills up said trash can (they're pumps made to kick in when water gets to a certain level.. in this case to the top of the waste trash can)
Add chlorine in to the system to keep it clean of microorganisms.
Presto! You have a completley self contained system that only uses electricity to pump water back upstairs when the waste trashcan gets full (e.g. when the trashcan in his room is almost empty)
"Still uses energy, mind you, but that takes care of the ice water.
Also, I thought that routing the water OUT was a bad idea. Why not catch the water in another bin, or in jugs, and freeze that? Makes SO much more sense..."
Actually, I've made a system EXACTLY like the one he has, but better. I used salt in my bin, which helps coolong another 15 degrees or so.
I also have outside my window a collection bin, and a cheap "sump pump" type of pump, so after the water gets to a certain level (top of the bin) it pumps the water back in to my room.
I also took and dismantled an old mini-fridge, straightened the coils out and put the "freezer plate" part of the fridge in the water, and the heating coils outside of the window.
It works EXCELLENT, and the cold air the fan blows is ice cold.
It's almost as good as a real air conditioner, it's just not all contained and of course (when it rains) I have to bring the parts in.
I run it nearly all the time. It works great. Just a few pointers for people who wish to really try this.
Actually, I think astronauts aren't required to have a license to broadcast, they have a special status.
I know for a fact that they're the only ones who are exempt from the rule that says you can't play music over the air. (Studied for tech exam a year or two ago)
So this this version of Fedora actually better than Debian would one say?
Did they finally impliment some distributed db like emerge or apt? (Dont give me the RH apt, story, the repo is like 100x smaller)
Is it as slow as RH has been since RH 6.0? Etc?
Don't want to try it out unless there are revolutionary improvements.
" Outlook 2003, which has best calendar/todo interface I've seen."
;-)
jon_k@1[~]$ cal
June 2005
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30
jon_k@1[~]$
I also put my appointments and to-do list in a text file using nano!
Its not the best, but it works!
"As far as I am concerned a price less than that is really unfair to the artists and does act as a disincentive for others to produce music for a living."
What's wrong with having a dayjob and producing music on the side? With all the bands that work full time with little good music as results, they might as well.
One time people use to play music for the joy of it, rather than trying to sell 1.3 million CDs within a week of an album being released. (Thus making huge profits)
Lets have a little less 'American Idols' and a few more people playing for the love of music. Music was better that way. At least I think so.
"1)I refuse to pay for DRM on principle
2)I can't use it on my linux box anyway"
Gee, same points for me too, DRM won't work in linux, I've tried. I'd be willing to pay but, whoops, no linux support. That goes down the shitter since I don't have access to a windows machine in my home.
Hasn't this same post been posted in other articles too?
./ trolls http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=2&q=http%3A// 66.199.252.162/~wrt/slashdot_trolls/
Labeled as:
As a video store owner, my business faces ruin. DVD sales have dropped through the floor.
And also as:
My business faces ruin. CD sales have dropped through the floor. People aren't buying half as many CDs as they did just a year ago
Hell there's even a copy of it in an open directory of
called bankrupt_bookstore.txt
Just a few of the many results one can find by typing "I bought the store about 12 years ago. It was one of those boutique " in google.
" and thus serves no purpose other than reducing public access to information and art."
Duh. That's the whole purpose of this. Lobbiests like to take away rights and access to information and art. It's only to be expected, and it's impossible to prevent. It's just like George Orewell predicted.
It doesn't matter what country we talk about here, all of the worlds governments are corrupt. US, and Europe the most.
Most people think Afghanistan and such is corrupt but they're nothing compared to us. Our governments like to make the public think they have freedoms, and like to take a few away every day. Afghanistan and such just trys to scare the people in to not using their freedoms, which is a recipe for eventual civil war.
No no, our governments are much more intelligent in to give people the illuzion there is freedom -- that way if a few smart individuals figure it out and try to upbring a civil war, nobody will follow them -- then they can easily be labeled as terrorists and be brought down.
Just remember, a frog will never jump out of the boiling pot if you heat it up slowly -- if you heat it up fast he'll jump right out.
We are all frogs, and we're in the pot right now -- is it heating up?
"Want to sue? Sorry, but you've probably already given up that right under an "arbitration" clause. One could try a class-action suit, I suppose, though that avenue's been largely gutted by the "Class Action Fairness Act"."
Doesn't matter. If enough people get in on it, then the it will still have consequences for the company.
"So what if the industry looses a few more dollars to identity theft? They'll just raise interest rates, late fees, and overlimit charges to make up for it."
Then people will flock to the one cheapest one left who hasn't been sued yet. This will be an award and an example to that one that hasn't lost info yet, to not do so in the future.
"BTW - I write this as someone who has a mortgage with Citigroup so my data could be at risk here. However, my knee is not jerking violently, (yet)."
It should be, its about the third time slashdot has posted an article about citibank in the past few months. If these aren't dupes, then surely you're information has been in the bunch.
Plus, no customer of citibank in the nation's knee is jerking (yet.) Until someone does some knee jerking, class action, or something of the sort, this will be seen as an acceptable business practice to citibank.
Things won't change unless you make them.
All that we need is a couple of class action lawsuits and all this would be taken care of. Companies hate class action lawsuits.
Nobody seems to care enough to start one though.
Of course, how is it can you start one, if you can't find out your name was one of the names stolen?
Here's the half lifes you wanted to know:
CO57 (cobalt-57) is approximately nine months (272 days)
CM244 (Curium-244) is about 18.11 years
It doesn't take a physics expert, in fact I'm simply a high school graduate (as of June 1 to boot)
I think they'll last even after the radioactive elements decay. But you might just be right!
"it should be possible for one to argue that, as they had not seen (and had little to no means of seeing) the EULA at the time of doctoring the CD, that they were unaware of the conditions imposed therein"
I love your idea there. Unfortunately you *would* have been aware of the EULA at that point. A copy of the EULA is distributed on the inside of the box in a booklet with every copy of Windows, as well as on the CD.
It would never hold up in court, unless you claimed 'I didn't know there was a EULA in "Windows XP Home - Getting Started' or you could also argue "Well I downloaded XP Home off the net, how should I have known it had an EULA?"
Neither of those seem like a solid case.
I think i'd be the first to bring up copyright issues.
Will the remakes be copyright by the remakers, or the original authors of the song? (long since dead)
This is definately a grey area as you're ripping off someone elses score (albiet they're dead) and you have no right to claim the reproducted score as your own.
"After all, what use is a 10Ghz 512-bit 3Ghz FSB 1GB video RAM 10GB RAM machine - when you're running Word?"
Crappier code technique, now you can code an app slower and bigger and the user won't notice.
"Some cities (at least it's the case here in Vancouver) have zoning bylaws that don't allow regular wood (or, by implication, paper) burning fireplaces and stoves to be installed anymore. This may not be feasible."
c tion.htm) they reconstruct cross-shredded paper, shredded paper, or any type of damaged paper in to complete documents. Shredding paper is no longer safe.
Well Officer Lucky, I was just trying to comply with Federal legistration. I'm in a catch 22. Will the city pay for my fine if I violate this act?
Check out this link Officer Lucky (http://www.churchstreet-technology.com/Reconstru
" $2500 doesn't seem to be a very harsh punishment for my personal data being compromised when the FCC can fine companies $11000 per do not call violation."
The government isn't concerned with fortune 500's disposal of information, but the mom and pop shops more than anything else. I was able to see the meeting on TV and thats what they said.
They actually brought the donotcall bill up, and they said thats because fortune 500's make calls to homes more than mom and pops. -Shrugs-
" Same problem as always with market forces instead of regulation; it relies on an informed and interested public allowing the problem to affect their purchasing decision."
You hit the nail on the head. Since when, has Americans been an "informed and interested public"?
"While this could be seen as a good idea, why not let people make the decision NOT to do business with companies that have bad business practices and lose your personal information? why force every business to abide by these wasteful laws because a few companies fuck up?
;-)
so a few people mess up and we are going to hit EVERY business owner with a fine (increased costs of doing business due to destroying docs = fine)?
let the people decide who they do business with, company X loses peoples info, company X goes out of business because people lose faith in them. Austrian economics at work!"
Because this isn't Australia this is America. People here are too fucking stupid and they'd go with farmers insurence anyway. Most of the people wouldn't even know such a thing happened because they don't read "News for nerds, stuff that matters"
Welcome to America hsmith
"Every day the rovers are sitting on Mars their solar panels are degrading"
Didn't they find out that the solar windstorms blow the sand off of them and keep them clean?
"radioactive materials used to keep bearing grease soft are decaying"
iirc they're using radium 226 which has a half life of about 1590 years.
I understand the point of your post, but these points for why it will fail are probably two unlikley points of failure.
"Just another embarrassment to Microsoft's security push."
Another embarassment for who "Nerds" who read the popular "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters. -- A popular technology news website"?
That's like having a Christian missionary meeting in a city that only allows Christians to live there.
Do you actually think wind of this news about Microsoft will reach real news sources such as MSNBC, FOX, and others? Yes, this article is on cnn's website, but I'm talking about newspaper and TV.
The amount of people who have power (e.g. corporate types who make decisions) are more likley to be reading the Wallstreet Journal than logging on at night to http://cnn.com/
So after all, this isn't an embarassment to Microsoft at all, as nobody important will ever see this article.
The burden shouldn't be on anybody. I have a friend in NY who is literally a millionare for doing recycling of old computer parts. He's got an entire warehouse full of old equipment.
He's told me I can come anytime and pick out anything I want as long as I can carry it out. I got a whole bunch of UPS's and not-too-old laptops last time I visited.
He's rich, he's happy, and he has a warehouse full of equipment. He's told me he'd be more than able to afford cost of recycling if they put the cost on him and not the consumer.
Why should consumers have to pay so the recycle companys dont?
"Second, have a good steel skeleton, so even if all the walls come down, the plane can land. And bolt the chairs down."
The plane is made out of it's shitty skeleton so it can actually take off. If the whole damn plane was a lead mold, do you ever think it'd get off the ground?