Even though it is obvious what they are from their front page, they look bad for spamming your friends, you look bad for trusting obvious slime, and your friends look bad for including you on their list.
"Like the wind crying endlessly through the universe, Time carries away the names and the deeds of conquerors and commoners alike. And all that we are, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment."
Harlan Ellison (1934 - ), "Paladin of the Lost Hour"
Doesn't that strike any of you as odd? He's effectively using a draconian law that devalues the importance of the human need to share thoughts and ideas, but at the same time it would be a hypocracy for such thoughts not to be shared with others.
Of course being around 70 years of age, he's probably just getting old and cranky now...
I live in Dayton. I never thought of it as a particularly difficult place to live. Perhaps if I move, I can take over the world and you can all bow down and worship me.
But don't rush out to buy my septer and throne just yet... I'm kinda stuck with having a negative equity mortgage, so the escape velocity to overcome the sucking power of Dayton is a little out of my reach at the moment.;-)
Mother already has enough trouble with the computer I set up for her, now I have to go through another round of "Will I still be able to get Yahoo with Mozoolah foxfur?"
Sometimes (every waking moment of my day) I regret every trying to get them interested in computers... But I was young and excited back then... Now I cringe when they try to pronounce computer related terms.
I'd like to reply to this without getting into the technical issues of the OS itself and just offer something that's actually pretty obvious: People readily eat up marketing propaganda BS.
When Windows 3.x was out, everyone who had a computer was a bit of a computer geek. It was crap, and people said so. Most of us typed in WIN manually only if the toy application we wanted to use required it.
When Win95 came out, there were a few AOL users out there who knew nothing of computers, but for the most part the average user was a geek. Bloat increased by a significant amount, but still, it was program related.
Windows 98 was a patch for all the evils of Win95. Computers that shipped with 98 came with some "extras", but it was still pretty clean. Marketers still thought of computers as "geek territory" and not worth panning for gold.
When Windows ME finally hit the scene, the OS itself was not bad. It was more or less a few extra features, some patches, and a more modern appearance. Sadly some fo the new features did not work as well as hoped. That's not to say the old stuff didn't work, but the new stuff was pretty rough around the edges. Another difficulty it faced was that people never learned from the past that YOU NEVER UPGRADE WINDOWS. You gotta install from scratch to get the best stuff. If you insert an upgrade disk you can count on your system being hopelessly caught in schitzo-limbo land. Also, computers that came pre-installed with WinMe were hopelessly bogged down with crap-ware, spy-ware, mal-ware, bloat-ware, and anything that a marketer could shove onto the 10GB hard drive as the box was headed out the door. It came with enough pre-loaded junk to destablize Debian.
ME had been set up by greedy marketers, stupid upgraders, and untested feature creep. So naturally the final nail in the coffin came from Redmond itself.
Believe it or not, the only way Microsoft can actually sell their latest version of crap is to launch a smear campaine against their current crap. People won't change willingly, so they quickly and viciously started bashing their own product by telling consumers who were experiencing any sort of problem that they needed to upgrade to Windows XP. (Now they encourage you to go WinXP Pro.) Guess what? It worked. It got people to buy XP IN SPITE OF ALL THE PROBLEMS IT HAS CAUSED!
What problems? Let's face it... Those worms have spread through XP faster than a dog hooked on pig shit. Meanwhile, those people still running a modestly firewalled Win98 or Me system have almost nothing to worry about.
So when you ask why people have such a problem with Windows ME, remember that most people who reply with comments about how unstable it is, are Windows XP users who would probably pay eskimos to spread snow on their lawn in the winter because "those guys know what they're doing", or they are "alternative" OS users who just hate "M$" because it makes them look pensive and "kewl".
I'm not saying that ME didn't have problems, but the problems it had have been so hyped that even otherwise intelligent and rational people will show signs of severely caustic brainwashing. Naturally, when I outgrew Windows ME, I realized that XP was a seriously expensive and dangerous lock-in technology I couldn't afford, so I'm not suffering from any of those symptoms... uh oh... Then again...
Well, I'm not really a Linux zealot just yet... I don't tell people to RTFM.:-P
I certainly agree with your analysis. People do trust the surveillance cameras because of the percieved official and responsible intention. Why they wouldn't trust me was the part I haven't quite answered yet, because I cannot think of rational reasons to "fear the camera".
BTW AFAIK, outside of a few "photo red lights" the city of Dayton does not have any official security cameras of thier own, and all the cameras you see on some of the downtown streets are operated by individual building/business owners and not by the local government.
The setting was daylight and sunny, I was cheerful and polite, dressed in decent clothes, had a nice digital camera, relaxed on an open street with lots of people around. Heck, I could have just stood there and started taking pictures and no one would have been able to say or do anything... But from the moment I asked they went into a panic:
"Why do you want to take my picture?"
"Is this going on the internet?"
"You say you're doing this for a class project?"
Twice I was asked, "How much are you going to pay me?"
But of course the final answer was always, "I don't want you taking my picture." and one even sounded distressed when they huried away with, "No! Don't!" Even though I hadn't done anything offensive I still felt "dirty" after that one.
I held the camera at chest level with both hands, I asked only once, I answered their questions directly, I was careful to not be pushy, and I did not point out the irony that they were already being videotaped by a nearby business. Most of these convesations were done with the person's head turned to one side, and their hand up next to their ear... I suppose that was just in case I started snapping pictures.
These were just every day people, and it's not like I was asking them to walk into a dark alley with me, or take off their clothes. Their fearful perception of what the image would be used for was both persistent and irrational. (I'll admit, even I would be disturbed by the question if I were approached, and yet I have no reasonable explaination as to why.)
There is no law that would have stopped me from taking pictures in public but asking people for their consent on a public street got a reaction as if I were about to cast leprosy upon them.
Now I'm just speculating this part: If I had a Channel 7 news van, a microphone and another person holding a video camera, I'd be able to ask people some pretty outrageous personal questions and get their honest candid reactions on tape in the knowing that their intimate admissions would be broadcast on the 6 o'clock news for all to see.
But an anonymous photograph... Oh yeah... That's something we've all got to fear, because... you know... Um... It could like... um... end up on the internet or something? Uh... yeah... that's it!
Why don't you give a shit? If someone walked up to you and asked you if they could take your picture, you'd probably get extremely camera shy, ask them why, and probably deny their request.
Don't bother replying telling me how you wouldn't have a problem with this. I've actually walked up to strangers in public downtown Dayton for the express purpose of testing my theory. Out of 15 people I got 15 disturbed reactions, and 15 requests denied. I was also twice approached for questioning as to why I was disturbing people by requesting to take their photograph. After the second time I decided it best not to continue my experiment lest I end up being assaulted or thrown in jail.
The pitch line was that I was a photography student, and I needed a person with a downtown neighborhood backdrop for an assignment. It sounded quite plausable, and no one contested my intent once I explained as such. I never really took any photos, as the experiment was to simply test a theory.
What I don't understand is why people don't want their picture taken when the intent to show the beautiful side of humanity, but they don't really care when they are being video taped with the intent to capture their ugliest moments.
Oh, and the cherry on top? They were all being watched by an obvious nearby surveilance camera when they declined my request.
Yeah... I have a Gigafast router, and if my IP address changes it's supposed to handle all that stuff automatically, but the damn thing goes on the blink until I reset it. Fortunately my IP address hasn't changed in about 5 months or better.
I'd switch over to running my own DNS, but I fear that the moment I do, my ISP will start changing my address every 3rd day.
I got a Custom DNS back when DynDNS was still offering their $30 lifetime deal... If it hadn't been for the built-in plug given by the router's "DynDNS feature" I probably would never have bothered with them in the first place. Especially since back in May they announced it was changing to an annual fee.
Let's see now... I've got annual fees for my domains... Monthly fee for my broadband ISP... OK- I'm outa cash. Better check out PowerDNS Express.
You know, actually the one question I'd like to know is why my internet connections go slower under Linux through the router. I take the router out, and it's practically precognitive! It never seemed to affect the MS Windows machines one bit, but then they were just slow no matter what...
I'm no expert in this area at all, but by increasing the number of steps in the pipeline it may be a preliminary move to bring the Paladium/Longhorn/DRM into the chip level. A better chip is sure to come, but it's going to be a chip with some erie strings attached.
I don't think he does. Corperatists have long enjoyed exploiting Americans since early on, but for good or ill, unions and labor laws have made it hard to compete in the current climate. Naturally, they outsource to nations that don't have these kinds of laws.
On the one hand, the corperatist has his eye on cheap labor. It's one of the principle foundations of capitalism, and technically, there's nothing wrong with that. On the other hand, they lobby relentlessly with law makers to ensure that new-comers will be at a significant disadvantage by making the entry-level cost of competing too high for even the brightest would-be entreprenuer.
Of course, what does this have to do with "free" software? Well, it's obvious that many corperations have a vested interest in keeping individuals from competing at their level, and the fact of the matter is, you can create very professional and profitable systems using the tools found under the GPL.
Proprietary software is something that corperatists are comfortable with. They can control it through tiered licensing schemes, and even control how a person may use the software, and to what extent. This allows them to control the growth of any would-be competition, and even prune it if necessary. The average "Merkin" is none-the-wiser of their schemes, and it all gets wrapped up in nice, neat, legal redtape.
Enter The "Free as in Freedom" software. Corperatists can't control it. Therefore it is difficult to impossible to control their competition. So they whine to the legislators they need more patent laws, copyright laws, and generally speaking- more of every law out there to keep those pesky would-be entreprenuers out of the "Free Market".
So if you love freedom, and you want to be free to pursue your goals in life, what is the best way to stop them? Go outside the US. Make sure that the rest of the world has these tools and that they become standard issue before their governments become poluted with corperatistic protectionist laws. With other nations having such an advantage, the American people might just wake up and smell the bullshit that these exploitationists have been shoveling. Some of them might actually send off a letter to their congress saying, "If we live in such a FREE country, why can't we have these tools as well? Hell, even those damned commies have better software than we do!"
And so the repeal of corperatist legislation may begin, and a FREE MARKET can take its place where people may buy and sell goods without the overbearing corperation run beauracracy that we have today.
And don't you damned corperatists go calling me a libral. It's not communism or socialism. It's called a Free Market and Free (as in Freedom) software will give rise to newer and better Free Markets. Corperations controlling the legislative body of government better deserve the moniker of communism since currently they control production, labor, and distribution, and, largely, the social and cultural life and thought of the people. In spite of all their hand-waving about being American capitalists, they are the very essence of un-American communisism.
If we are ever to truly be free, we must stand as individuals and stop licking the hand of our corperate puppetmasters.
To control or be controlled. Which is it?
OK, I had the guts to take this "Karma Swan-Dive". Let's hope it's not in vain.
Renaming any Linux distro is fine by me (Redhat -> Fedora), but it's like any other brand that thinks it can change its name to improve its image. There's always a backlash...
So just tell ol' blondie that you're installing FreeDebian. It doesn't sound as cool as FreeFedora, but it just sounds much better than FreeMandrake.
Private corporations have been selling our personal data to eachother since forever. I don't see why this is a big deal now.
It's a big deal because it's a centralized database that enjoys a legal status more powerful than any individual in which it represents. Governemtental bodies, corperations, and others that have authority to make decisions that affect a human life can and will base their decisions upon the information found in centralised dossiers. Your arguments against any inaccuracies or biased representations will carry far less weight, and you will be dealt with by a system where your past history is too much of a liability to ignore regardless of your present intent.
In short: It spits upon the grave of every man who has given their life to protect the freedom and liberty in these United States.
Sorry... I checked with a dictionary. A conspiracy is the act of secretly planning to do something wrong, especially a wrong against the government. The legal definition is an agreement by two or more persons to act unlawfully.
Since this program is not a secret (as it is on/.), and the people implementing the program are widely believed to be the government, and everything the government does is seen to be legal (even if it isn't), then there is no conspiracy.
WinXP is it's own punishment. I can swap out my motherboard, change my video card, and use a different hard drive, re-install Linux in 15 minutes, and never have to report to Gates Inc as to why the registry keys don't add up.
But I see your point. KDE is more like MS Windows, and you can even make it look and feel almost exactly the same, though most Windows users never figure out the "how", and most Linux users never justify the "why".
Gnome is a little more light-weight though, and if it weren't for the smelly foot logo, I'd probably have stuck with it.
It doesn't surprise me that we've seen a lot of push for Gnome recently. They do have a better deal for a would-be developer. KDE's license is just too scary for those of us who wear protective tin-foil head gear.
For right now I need a more compelling reason to switch to Gnome. "Just 'cause," isn't good enough. I need solid reasons... That, and a quick primer on converting my e-mail archives out of KMail...
OK, today we get so bogged down in the technological aspect that the obvious can get away from us. Here's my point:
Mr. Former Employee
C/O Old Employer Co.
123 Industrial Way
Anytown, NJ 12345-6789
IANAL so I don't know the answer to this question: Who is legally allowed to open this envelope? I know I've seen bosses open the mail of departed former employees, look at it and say, "OK, I know what to do with this," and walk off, but the legality of such actions never crossed my mind. Find out the answer to this, and you've probably got your answer to the ethical dilemma around the e-mail question.
What kind of courses does Iraq's higher educational system have in regards to computers? Do they have many classes regarding Unix/Linux type systems or is the emphasis more on proprietary software such as Microsoft's? In general, what kind of careers goals do the Iraqi computer students have?
So what would my options be in said case? Believe it or not, I actually have the unopened Caldera OpenLinux 2.3 disk in a mint condition "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Linux Second Edition" (C) 2000 (Actually I never bothered to read the book or install the distro, but it is ironic that the "Idiots Guide" came with Caldera.) Are they forcing people who are using Caldera to pay up and sign a satanic contract in blood? Should I switch back to using MS Windows 98? (GOD NO! NO! NEVER AGAIN! NO!) Should I immediately sign up for my free 25 megs of space on Tripod? Or better: Use the free 5 megs that comes with my ISP service and use the URL Forwarding? Is Stallman and the FSF and Linus and the whole Slashdot community going to lend me kind sage advice and hold my hand through trying times? What oh what should I do if the EVIL DARYL MCBRIDE should come after my computer?
In all seriousness, if SCO ever did come after my "amatuer" homebrew server, what should I do? (Besides fold like a wet napkin...)
I almost thought you were a troll, but point taken. The real problem I have with your statement is the part where you describe dragging people away from windows. I'll go out on a limb: It can't be done.
If they like the interface (because they got used to it at work or school) then that's the interface they want, and you could beat the crap out of them with better and best, and they'd still point and gawk at the start button like a baby wanting its pacifier.
Deep down, the part that really matters is how does it work at the BASH level. There's where it's heart truly beats Linux.
Running win32 apps under Linux is one of those areas where YMMVS (Your Mileage May Vary Significantly). The compatibility layer known as Wine works differently from distro to distro, and from win32 app to win32 app. You even have different versions of Wine that support certain sets of apps, and other that don't. Wine(x) is far from perfect, so don't go in expecting it to be a deus ex machina.
Unless you're trying to port your game collection over, Linux really does have just about all the apps you need natively. You'd be surprised at how nicely the "important" stuff runs. I *highly* recommend getting a second PC ($200 at Walmart) and resolving to try Linux for a solid 6 months before making any real judgements. If you think you know all about Linux because you tried it for a few weeks, and you just don't like the way it feels, then you really don't know what you're talking about. It's not Windows, and we all know it.
I myself still use a few old win32 apps out of sheer complacency, but they don't run flawlessly, and switching to Linux is definitely an uphill battle. Unless you already have a bunch of geeky Linux friends, you can probably expect not to make any either... But Linux has it's own rewards for those who stick with it.
You'll just have to find out for yourself. Good luck, and may Linus be with you!;-)
A long while back I owned a DMP, and it printed out text marginally, images were dreadful, and in both cases it was slow.
Then came my first inkjet. The ink wasn't any cheaper back then, the resolution was about as crisp as a DMP, and it used a driver included with Windows 95.
A few inkjets later, the drivers had to be installed and the the bell and whistle feature creep was causing a noticable delay in the printer startup time.
Today the printers you buy require more hard drive space than Windows 95 ever used, they phone home as soon as they detect an internet connection, they won't let you use all the ink in a cartridge, they won't even let you use competitor's refills, they frequently break down (but it's more cost effective just to buy another one) and the one thing that still eludes all common sense:
They are still able to sell these pieces of crap at a higher rate today than any time before now.
You get what you deserve. If you (not just the stupid people, but all of you) continue to buy trash hardware, the manufacturers will continue to make more and more. In the long run it will only be cost effective for themselves - Not you - Themselves.
Sad to think that I threw away a couple of newer inkjets because of their short lived construction, but my ol' HP 500, Stylus 660, and that old DMP work just fine. Sure the color picture print-outs were pretty, but I didn't miss the bloatware headaches they caused.
Just stop buying crap, people. Make it a priority. Put it on your "to do" list. Give it a whirl. Don't just give it lip service. If you want to effect change, actually put your convictions into practice. Don't just mod my butt down because you think I'm being obnoxious. I'm making a valid point. It's not always palatable to hear the truth, but you need to start making more conscious efforts in your buying habits - Not the guy in the next cubical - YOU.
Slashdot Mirror
It's one big disfunctional love-triangle.
OTOH, you could always use the arguement, "It works fine under Fire[bird/fox]".
Doesn't that strike any of you as odd? He's effectively using a draconian law that devalues the importance of the human need to share thoughts and ideas, but at the same time it would be a hypocracy for such thoughts not to be shared with others.
Of course being around 70 years of age, he's probably just getting old and cranky now...
I live in Dayton. I never thought of it as a particularly difficult place to live. Perhaps if I move, I can take over the world and you can all bow down and worship me.
But don't rush out to buy my septer and throne just yet... I'm kinda stuck with having a negative equity mortgage, so the escape velocity to overcome the sucking power of Dayton is a little out of my reach at the moment. ;-)
Sometimes (every waking moment of my day) I regret every trying to get them interested in computers... But I was young and excited back then... Now I cringe when they try to pronounce computer related terms.
Slightly Crippled?
Yeah, it comes pre-installed with 14 viruses.
Slightly Crippled?
It's product activation is 30 days expired.
Slightly Crippled?
It's the latest version.
Slightly Crippled? .NET
They wrote it using
Slightly Crippled?
But it comes with a free Frogurt.
Damn... I could keep this up all night.
That would be redundant. We've already sent monkeys into space.
When Windows 3.x was out, everyone who had a computer was a bit of a computer geek. It was crap, and people said so. Most of us typed in WIN manually only if the toy application we wanted to use required it.
When Win95 came out, there were a few AOL users out there who knew nothing of computers, but for the most part the average user was a geek. Bloat increased by a significant amount, but still, it was program related.
Windows 98 was a patch for all the evils of Win95. Computers that shipped with 98 came with some "extras", but it was still pretty clean. Marketers still thought of computers as "geek territory" and not worth panning for gold.
When Windows ME finally hit the scene, the OS itself was not bad. It was more or less a few extra features, some patches, and a more modern appearance. Sadly some fo the new features did not work as well as hoped. That's not to say the old stuff didn't work, but the new stuff was pretty rough around the edges. Another difficulty it faced was that people never learned from the past that YOU NEVER UPGRADE WINDOWS. You gotta install from scratch to get the best stuff. If you insert an upgrade disk you can count on your system being hopelessly caught in schitzo-limbo land. Also, computers that came pre-installed with WinMe were hopelessly bogged down with crap-ware, spy-ware, mal-ware, bloat-ware, and anything that a marketer could shove onto the 10GB hard drive as the box was headed out the door. It came with enough pre-loaded junk to destablize Debian.
ME had been set up by greedy marketers, stupid upgraders, and untested feature creep. So naturally the final nail in the coffin came from Redmond itself.
Believe it or not, the only way Microsoft can actually sell their latest version of crap is to launch a smear campaine against their current crap. People won't change willingly, so they quickly and viciously started bashing their own product by telling consumers who were experiencing any sort of problem that they needed to upgrade to Windows XP. (Now they encourage you to go WinXP Pro.) Guess what? It worked. It got people to buy XP IN SPITE OF ALL THE PROBLEMS IT HAS CAUSED!
What problems? Let's face it... Those worms have spread through XP faster than a dog hooked on pig shit. Meanwhile, those people still running a modestly firewalled Win98 or Me system have almost nothing to worry about.
So when you ask why people have such a problem with Windows ME, remember that most people who reply with comments about how unstable it is, are Windows XP users who would probably pay eskimos to spread snow on their lawn in the winter because "those guys know what they're doing", or they are "alternative" OS users who just hate "M$" because it makes them look pensive and "kewl".
I'm not saying that ME didn't have problems, but the problems it had have been so hyped that even otherwise intelligent and rational people will show signs of severely caustic brainwashing. Naturally, when I outgrew Windows ME, I realized that XP was a seriously expensive and dangerous lock-in technology I couldn't afford, so I'm not suffering from any of those symptoms... uh oh... Then again...
Well, I'm not really a Linux zealot just yet... I don't tell people to RTFM. :-P
BTW AFAIK, outside of a few "photo red lights" the city of Dayton does not have any official security cameras of thier own, and all the cameras you see on some of the downtown streets are operated by individual building/business owners and not by the local government.
The setting was daylight and sunny, I was cheerful and polite, dressed in decent clothes, had a nice digital camera, relaxed on an open street with lots of people around. Heck, I could have just stood there and started taking pictures and no one would have been able to say or do anything... But from the moment I asked they went into a panic:
"Why do you want to take my picture?"
"Is this going on the internet?"
"You say you're doing this for a class project?"
Twice I was asked, "How much are you going to pay me?"
But of course the final answer was always, "I don't want you taking my picture." and one even sounded distressed when they huried away with, "No! Don't!" Even though I hadn't done anything offensive I still felt "dirty" after that one.
I held the camera at chest level with both hands, I asked only once, I answered their questions directly, I was careful to not be pushy, and I did not point out the irony that they were already being videotaped by a nearby business. Most of these convesations were done with the person's head turned to one side, and their hand up next to their ear... I suppose that was just in case I started snapping pictures.
These were just every day people, and it's not like I was asking them to walk into a dark alley with me, or take off their clothes. Their fearful perception of what the image would be used for was both persistent and irrational. (I'll admit, even I would be disturbed by the question if I were approached, and yet I have no reasonable explaination as to why.)
There is no law that would have stopped me from taking pictures in public but asking people for their consent on a public street got a reaction as if I were about to cast leprosy upon them.
Now I'm just speculating this part: If I had a Channel 7 news van, a microphone and another person holding a video camera, I'd be able to ask people some pretty outrageous personal questions and get their honest candid reactions on tape in the knowing that their intimate admissions would be broadcast on the 6 o'clock news for all to see.
But an anonymous photograph... Oh yeah... That's something we've all got to fear, because... you know... Um... It could like... um... end up on the internet or something? Uh... yeah... that's it!
Don't bother replying telling me how you wouldn't have a problem with this. I've actually walked up to strangers in public downtown Dayton for the express purpose of testing my theory. Out of 15 people I got 15 disturbed reactions, and 15 requests denied. I was also twice approached for questioning as to why I was disturbing people by requesting to take their photograph. After the second time I decided it best not to continue my experiment lest I end up being assaulted or thrown in jail.
The pitch line was that I was a photography student, and I needed a person with a downtown neighborhood backdrop for an assignment. It sounded quite plausable, and no one contested my intent once I explained as such. I never really took any photos, as the experiment was to simply test a theory.
What I don't understand is why people don't want their picture taken when the intent to show the beautiful side of humanity, but they don't really care when they are being video taped with the intent to capture their ugliest moments.
Oh, and the cherry on top? They were all being watched by an obvious nearby surveilance camera when they declined my request.
Intel Inside <- It's a warning label.
I'd switch over to running my own DNS, but I fear that the moment I do, my ISP will start changing my address every 3rd day.
I got a Custom DNS back when DynDNS was still offering their $30 lifetime deal... If it hadn't been for the built-in plug given by the router's "DynDNS feature" I probably would never have bothered with them in the first place. Especially since back in May they announced it was changing to an annual fee.
Let's see now... I've got annual fees for my domains... Monthly fee for my broadband ISP... OK- I'm outa cash. Better check out PowerDNS Express.
You know, actually the one question I'd like to know is why my internet connections go slower under Linux through the router. I take the router out, and it's practically precognitive! It never seemed to affect the MS Windows machines one bit, but then they were just slow no matter what...
I'm no expert in this area at all, but by increasing the number of steps in the pipeline it may be a preliminary move to bring the Paladium/Longhorn/DRM into the chip level. A better chip is sure to come, but it's going to be a chip with some erie strings attached.
I don't think he does. Corperatists have long enjoyed exploiting Americans since early on, but for good or ill, unions and labor laws have made it hard to compete in the current climate. Naturally, they outsource to nations that don't have these kinds of laws.
On the one hand, the corperatist has his eye on cheap labor. It's one of the principle foundations of capitalism, and technically, there's nothing wrong with that. On the other hand, they lobby relentlessly with law makers to ensure that new-comers will be at a significant disadvantage by making the entry-level cost of competing too high for even the brightest would-be entreprenuer.
Of course, what does this have to do with "free" software? Well, it's obvious that many corperations have a vested interest in keeping individuals from competing at their level, and the fact of the matter is, you can create very professional and profitable systems using the tools found under the GPL.
Proprietary software is something that corperatists are comfortable with. They can control it through tiered licensing schemes, and even control how a person may use the software, and to what extent. This allows them to control the growth of any would-be competition, and even prune it if necessary. The average "Merkin" is none-the-wiser of their schemes, and it all gets wrapped up in nice, neat, legal redtape.
Enter The "Free as in Freedom" software.
Corperatists can't control it. Therefore it is difficult to impossible to control their competition. So they whine to the legislators they need more patent laws, copyright laws, and generally speaking- more of every law out there to keep those pesky would-be entreprenuers out of the "Free Market".
So if you love freedom, and you want to be free to pursue your goals in life, what is the best way to stop them? Go outside the US. Make sure that the rest of the world has these tools and that they become standard issue before their governments become poluted with corperatistic protectionist laws. With other nations having such an advantage, the American people might just wake up and smell the bullshit that these exploitationists have been shoveling. Some of them might actually send off a letter to their congress saying, "If we live in such a FREE country, why can't we have these tools as well? Hell, even those damned commies have better software than we do!"
And so the repeal of corperatist legislation may begin, and a FREE MARKET can take its place where people may buy and sell goods without the overbearing corperation run beauracracy that we have today.
And don't you damned corperatists go calling me a libral. It's not communism or socialism. It's called a Free Market and Free (as in Freedom) software will give rise to newer and better Free Markets. Corperations controlling the legislative body of government better deserve the moniker of communism since currently they control production, labor, and distribution, and, largely, the social and cultural life and thought of the people. In spite of all their hand-waving about being American capitalists, they are the very essence of un-American communisism.
If we are ever to truly be free, we must stand as individuals and stop licking the hand of our corperate puppetmasters.
To control or be controlled. Which is it?
OK, I had the guts to take this "Karma Swan-Dive". Let's hope it's not in vain.
So just tell ol' blondie that you're installing FreeDebian. It doesn't sound as cool as FreeFedora, but it just sounds much better than FreeMandrake.
It's a big deal because it's a centralized database that enjoys a legal status more powerful than any individual in which it represents. Governemtental bodies, corperations, and others that have authority to make decisions that affect a human life can and will base their decisions upon the information found in centralised dossiers. Your arguments against any inaccuracies or biased representations will carry far less weight, and you will be dealt with by a system where your past history is too much of a liability to ignore regardless of your present intent.
In short: It spits upon the grave of every man who has given their life to protect the freedom and liberty in these United States.
Other than that... No big deal... None at all.
Since this program is not a secret (as it is on /.), and the people implementing the program are widely believed to be the government, and everything the government does is seen to be legal (even if it isn't), then there is no conspiracy.
It doesn't make it any less disturbing.
WinXP is it's own punishment. I can swap out my motherboard, change my video card, and use a different hard drive, re-install Linux in 15 minutes, and never have to report to Gates Inc as to why the registry keys don't add up.
But I see your point. KDE is more like MS Windows, and you can even make it look and feel almost exactly the same, though most Windows users never figure out the "how", and most Linux users never justify the "why". Gnome is a little more light-weight though, and if it weren't for the smelly foot logo, I'd probably have stuck with it.
It doesn't surprise me that we've seen a lot of push for Gnome recently. They do have a better deal for a would-be developer. KDE's license is just too scary for those of us who wear protective tin-foil head gear.
For right now I need a more compelling reason to switch to Gnome. "Just 'cause," isn't good enough. I need solid reasons... That, and a quick primer on converting my e-mail archives out of KMail...
Mr. Former Employee
C/O Old Employer Co.
123 Industrial Way
Anytown, NJ 12345-6789
IANAL so I don't know the answer to this question: Who is legally allowed to open this envelope? I know I've seen bosses open the mail of departed former employees, look at it and say, "OK, I know what to do with this," and walk off, but the legality of such actions never crossed my mind. Find out the answer to this, and you've probably got your answer to the ethical dilemma around the e-mail question.
What kind of courses does Iraq's higher educational system have in regards to computers? Do they have many classes regarding Unix/Linux type systems or is the emphasis more on proprietary software such as Microsoft's? In general, what kind of careers goals do the Iraqi computer students have?
So what would my options be in said case? Believe it or not, I actually have the unopened Caldera OpenLinux 2.3 disk in a mint condition "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Linux Second Edition" (C) 2000 (Actually I never bothered to read the book or install the distro, but it is ironic that the "Idiots Guide" came with Caldera.) Are they forcing people who are using Caldera to pay up and sign a satanic contract in blood? Should I switch back to using MS Windows 98? (GOD NO! NO! NEVER AGAIN! NO!) Should I immediately sign up for my free 25 megs of space on Tripod? Or better: Use the free 5 megs that comes with my ISP service and use the URL Forwarding? Is Stallman and the FSF and Linus and the whole Slashdot community going to lend me kind sage advice and hold my hand through trying times? What oh what should I do if the EVIL DARYL MCBRIDE should come after my computer?
In all seriousness, if SCO ever did come after my "amatuer" homebrew server, what should I do? (Besides fold like a wet napkin...)
I almost thought you were a troll, but point taken. The real problem I have with your statement is the part where you describe dragging people away from windows. I'll go out on a limb: It can't be done.
If they like the interface (because they got used to it at work or school) then that's the interface they want, and you could beat the crap out of them with better and best, and they'd still point and gawk at the start button like a baby wanting its pacifier.
Deep down, the part that really matters is how does it work at the BASH level. There's where it's heart truly beats Linux.
I myself still use a few old win32 apps out of sheer complacency, but they don't run flawlessly, and switching to Linux is definitely an uphill battle. Unless you already have a bunch of geeky Linux friends, you can probably expect not to make any either... But Linux has it's own rewards for those who stick with it.
You'll just have to find out for yourself. Good luck, and may Linus be with you! ;-)
Then came my first inkjet. The ink wasn't any cheaper back then, the resolution was about as crisp as a DMP, and it used a driver included with Windows 95.
A few inkjets later, the drivers had to be installed and the the bell and whistle feature creep was causing a noticable delay in the printer startup time.
Today the printers you buy require more hard drive space than Windows 95 ever used, they phone home as soon as they detect an internet connection, they won't let you use all the ink in a cartridge, they won't even let you use competitor's refills, they frequently break down (but it's more cost effective just to buy another one) and the one thing that still eludes all common sense:
They are still able to sell these pieces of crap at a higher rate today than any time before now.
You get what you deserve. If you (not just the stupid people, but all of you) continue to buy trash hardware, the manufacturers will continue to make more and more. In the long run it will only be cost effective for themselves - Not you - Themselves.
Sad to think that I threw away a couple of newer inkjets because of their short lived construction, but my ol' HP 500, Stylus 660, and that old DMP work just fine. Sure the color picture print-outs were pretty, but I didn't miss the bloatware headaches they caused.
Just stop buying crap, people. Make it a priority. Put it on your "to do" list. Give it a whirl. Don't just give it lip service. If you want to effect change, actually put your convictions into practice. Don't just mod my butt down because you think I'm being obnoxious. I'm making a valid point. It's not always palatable to hear the truth, but you need to start making more conscious efforts in your buying habits - Not the guy in the next cubical - YOU.
Could you imagine if Google started handing our free web based e-mail accounts? Just imagine getting spammed by sexy4you@google.com.
Ouch... that hurts just thinking about it... Google is more because they are less of what you don't want.