Which is why checking signatures is important...or at least hashes. I suppose ISPs could just substitue in their public key for every one you download and slip in their own hashes, but it would be more difficult. Especially if you traded keys some other way--such as face to face swaps, but usually only the paraniod do that...
For some reason I thought there was an option in resolv.conf where you could specify a server to use for a specific domain name. I tried to look at the man page, but for some reason I was typing 'man/etc/resolv.conf' which doesn't work.
I think you are confused as to what this guy is saying. The judge ordered ICANN to take Spamhaus' domain off the DNS system. If people put the IP for spamhaus.org in their hosts file, they will still be able to use it.
Obvoiusly, Linux isn't easy, it is a server OS. You are supposed to be an admin to install and set it up. I don't recall saying Linux was easy, just Windows wasn't, but all these people say it was.
My Atari ST was relativly easy. The OS was already in ROM, and to run programs, you just had to put in the disk, and I think they were set up for booting. The Atari 8bits and TI49Aswere even easier--just put in a cartridge or disk and boot. Cart progs came up instantly. Though, there was no hard drive to muck up, so you didn't have to worry about questionable programs too much. There were some virii, but they didn't have many ways of spreading (bbses were for simple terminals, no ActiveX controls). Not like today where they install spyware, copy protection drivers, and the like. You can't even trust music CDs.
Those systems are gone now.
I thought Ubuntu used KDE? I just tried 6.06, and I am certain the programs were KDE. Maybe they changed it??? Or maybe I don't know the difference? I could've swore the programs were called kwhatever...
You have a dumpster computer too? The computer I'm using is from a dumpster in a storage lot.
About hating Macs, I'm not really keen on their hardware choices, but the current "wintel" machines have migrated to them. Software based power buttons--sometimes you have to pull the plug unless you are lucky enough to have a power unit with a physical switch. Motorized disk eject--slow and the machine can lock--no reason for that with read-only media. Things like that.
I tested network cards on Macs, and those "features" sucked. Especially when the Mac's state was messed by a bad board, and sometimes even the "hold down for 10 sec" trick didn't even work, but it wasn't really faster than pulling the plug anyway...
I haven't used any Macs recently, though "look and feel" don't really matter to me. Hiding things does irritate me too, but doesn't MS Windows do it too?
I haven't noticed the disk problems you have on your system, but then I don't really compare speeds or anything.
So you are saying I am a "pirate" at heart because I want to run SSH and an X Terminal on a DS when I get it? It would make accessing my Linux machines easier. (anyone have some good web pages which might explain how to do this?) I'm sure I'll need a mod chip for that.
Another reason to make modchips illegal: what about manufacturers who want to make compatible consoles. Right now it is probably difficult/illegal--why else have we not seen them. Plenty of people would want to buy a machine which could play games from the Gamecube, PS1/2, Xbox and such. The machine could even run regular computer programs (after all, a game machine is just a computer, though restricted)
[1] "Pirate" really should be copyright infringer or something like, but I guess it doesn't sound extreme enough for the entertainment cartel.
You know, your idea sounds a little like what the Circle p2p system uses for moderation. Except instead of modding by category, you see moderations done by people you like. So essentially conservatives see posts modded up by other conservative. Liberals see posts modded up by other liberals. Molecular biologists will see posts modded up by their peers. Everyone should be happy...
I think they took the idea from orkut or advogato or somewhere...
I don't really care if anyone switches. I'm just tired of seeing all the stupid MS crap. People claiming it's "easy to use" when they haven't seriously tried any other OSes. People saying you have to constantly do all this maintenance crap (defrags, spyware checks, registry cleaners, AV scans, etc) with your computer all the time having the attitude that these are normal things to worry about with a computer. People asking me to "fix" their broken MS installs (which usually means having to just reinstall the entire system) and it usually ends up broken again one way or another. Even installing a program is risky because MS took forever to come out with a real packaging format, so most programs are installed by running some executable, which there is no way to know what it will do to the computer. I remember Quicktime could completely bork an install. I don't have much experience with installing on XP though, because I started avoiding working with Windows before it came out.
The defrag prevention shouldn't slow down reads (I assume that is what you are talking about), in fact it should only really slow down allocation a little bit. I mean, how much processing time is it going to take? Unless you are talking about lots of small files. But even then, I'm sure it fills in the holes one way or another.
I wonder if the slowness may be something else. What about these two posibilities: Ultra DMA is off, and the fact Linux is a server OS (which makes it crappy for desktop use).
For DMA, have you played with hdparm? I think most distros don't turn on DMA by default because it is risky with some buggy motherboards. PIO mode is the default and slower for various reasons, including because it uses processing time. hdparm -d 1/dev/hda should at least turn it on for your first hard drive.
Linux is a server OS, so everything assumes you will be running many active programs all competing for I/O and processing time, so it is generally opimized that way. Desktops usually only have 1, 2 or maybe 3 programs which are active at once, and often they won't be competing for the same resource anyway.
Version 2.6 of the kernel has a few options to at least help with this problem. The most notable is the one where (I forget the term) task switching can be set from the usual 100 times per second to 250 or 1000/sec.
Sometimes setting the nice value (man nice) to a high negative number such as -10 or -19 on what you want to run fast helps. You can also use realtime priority (I forget the command, then again maybe it isn't in the standard installs.) Use caution on realtime priority because a program not designed for it or one that is processor intensive can lock your machine. rt priority gives your program a higher priority than the kernel, so it has to voluntarily give up the processor back to the system.
Because Linux is a server OS, it is assumed admins will be tuning it. So, if you really want it to perform, you will need to play with it./proc is another place to look I think, though I mostly just use it to tune networking. man proc, though I think there is a howto or doc in the kernel source for it too...
Since you already have a Mac I don't see why you wouldn't want to just stick with it. They designed OS X for PC users[1] from the ground up, didn't they? Using fink you should be able to get all of the programs which are available to Linux users. I'd probably switch to OS X, but after the strokes, I don't have much money and I have trouble learning new things, so I don't know how well I would do with it.
[1] Note I am using the original definition of PC (which was coined by Apple), not the MS definition where it supposedly means only a computer running a MS OS.
But if you really want to use Linux and actually like the MS Windows' way of doing things, try Ubuntu and if you don't want to download a big iso, they send
You must not have been reading slashdot lately. There have been plenty of reasonable posts on the other side which have been modded down, and plenty of questionable posts for the things you have said which have been modded up.
More likely extremist groups, shills, and such are working together to control moderation. So something which talks up their side is modded up, and anything which talks down their side or talks up "the enemy" is modded down.
No, those moderated groups probably dissapeared over time because a psycho control freak was the moderator. Unfortunately, most of the people who seek for moderation are control freaks. If reasonable people are moderators, it does seem to work.
Nothing kills a discussion system faster than all of the useful posters being chased away by: faq natzis, constant grammar and spelling corrections, attacks because someone was jealous the poster may know more about a subject, claims that clearly on topic posts are somehow off topic, and being modded out because of these stupid reasons and more.
Interesting. Since we are talking about moderation here...
Why did the parent get modded up, which didn't have much to it--a grammar correction and asking the guy if what he did worked, basicly. Not very interesting.
Yet, the grandparent, which had a great, apparently working idea, didn't get modded up at all.
Maybe hankwang has some friends with mod points??? Or have the grammar nazis taken over? Haha. Maybe Mr Wang is rich and has hired a third world nation to mod up his posts. Find out in the next episode of Slashdot Moderation Master Detective: The people must know!!!
That is not the real reason. Copy protection waned a few years before most vendors started publishing on CDs. I got to the point where the vast majority of magazine reviews (not just random schmucks) complained if the program had any copy protection at all. People got really pissed off because of all the problems.
Why do I keep hearing MS users insist filesystems need to be defraged constantly? Real OSes have fragmentation prevention built in. The prevention is not perfect, but it beats runing defrag every day. Even linux has had it since ext2 came out at least a decade ago. If MS hasn't done this by now, then they should be bopped in the head. Then again, they make their own users afraid to upgrade. WTF???
The need for defrag on modern systems is a myth. Read here and here
If you are running a major corporation's computer infrastructure, you should forget Linux, Macs and Windows (at least as much as possible). Use big iron servers and give your users X Terminals.
X Terminals are really cheap. If you can't find a good supplier, all you need is a box (with powersupply), motherboard/ram, network adapter (many motherboards come with those nowadays), video card (integrated is fine), something to boot from if needed (most bioses boot from network now, and I think all are flashable) and obviously a monitor. All that won't cost very much. Certainly less than a full blown computer.
If a user really needs a Windows computer for that special app or a terminal doesn't cut it for them, then give them what they need. There are X Servers out there which will run on windows, and real OSs already have them, so you won't need a second box.
I haven't run enough big iron to know which OS is the best, however I'm certain it isn't a piddly microsoft one. In fact, I never heard of anyone using a MS OS on big iron.
For smaller companies/locations, a regular computer running one of the BSDs would probably be fine for your server(s).
First, list one new feature in Vista where all business users will absolutely need an upgrade. I haven't heard of any. That was my main point.
Even though what you are saying is true about MS eventually stopping support for XP, like that guy said, it won't be for quite a few years. And part of my point was most users don't need to constantly buy new software. And if they do need a new program which doesn't work on XP, then just upgrade that one computer to Vista (or the proper OS). And if MS rigs it so you are required to upgrade all computers at once...well fuck MS, they cause too many problems. That is the problem with vendor lock in. Your goal as system/network admin should be to help keep your company from being screwed by software and hardware vendors. How will they be able to stay in business and be profitable if they have all these problems from their computer systems?
A private NNTP server would probably be perfect for this guy. Then users could use their favorite client. (or just Outlook Express) They probably already have something installed. Much better than web-crap boards. (Admit it everyone, all web boards have a sucky interface. Even the new "XML improved" ones.) Only thing, I can't remember enough about the protocol to say how fast the server will update clients. It is instantly, isn't it???
I would only say upgrade from win95/98/me because they were total pieces of crap. But why WinXP? An operating system does not "wear out" so what is the use of a change? Maybe if there was some feature in the new OS they needed--though not many will. Maybe if it was to a much better OS (which I doubt Vista is) and they wanted to spend the money, but MS made sure nearly all of the competitors were wiped out along with the chances of improved desktop operating systems coming to fruition.
Where is the great OS coming which everyone must upgrade? In the dreams of users perhaps, but they probably won't see their dreams come true. Nobody is really researching toward a great system, they are all just slapping together buzzword features or copying older systems, wether they improve things or not. Even on the open source side, the major projects are Gnome and KDE, which actually try to clone win98 (couldn't they choose something better?!?) and certainly aren't any better than WinXP. Apparently they take the same psychotic drugs as those at MS, so their dialog boxes are just as screwed up.
If you computer works good enough, I don't see a reason to throw it away. Especially if there will be no improvement for the user in the new system. The only "improvements" I have heard about in Vista are better copy protection (which may cause problems for users) and a prettier interface--which will not increase productivity, and I have even heard it makes everything more difficult to read, which would most certainly decrease productivity. And that is what users need, something to help them with productivity, because no one wants to spend their free nights at work. (well except those who have a bad home life or something...)
But what do I know. I run "old mouldy" software. I am still runing Linux 2.4.x and use xfig for drawing...
Yeah sure. Just like the fucking shitty Aiptek camera I bought, when opened revealed an "EULA" which said (among other things) I wasn't allowed to let anyone else use it except immediate family and I am allowed to give it as a gift, but only if I never open the box! (Which you have to do to read the EULA in the first place!)
May all the cameras, microphones, keybords and other devices you buy have these clauses combined with a clause which says "you are not allowed to distribute content created by this device." Meaning if you type on the keyboard, the content is theirs. If you take a picture, the content is theirs. If you record a sound, the content is theirs.
See if you can live like that. Let's see you sell something when everyone else owns everything you create.
Once you sell a product, it isn't yours anymore. You can't dictate what other people do with it. Copyright law was only intended to make selling works in line with selling physical goods, not give vendors absolute control over something they don't even own anymore--that is what sale means, the buyer owns the property you sold. This includes copyrighted content.
The buyer bought the right to have and use a copy of the content, the only right they didn't buy is to redistribute copies of your content. If they do that, they are breaking copyright law. They are not breaking the law if they don't follow your EULA. In fact, by inserting a EULA into your product where they can't see it until after they buy it and open the box, you are breaking the law by creating a blank contract--the end user doesn't see it until after they "agree" to it. You people have been smoking too much SCO crack.
How many players do have DRM support? I haven't kept up with the news lately, but I thought the RIAA companies never managed to get a standard going. Are you telling me if I buy one of these obscure brand name MP3 players (ignore the apple ones and such), they all have some sort of DRM?
The intentions here may be good, but the execution is nearly at hypocritical levels.
What else could you expect from a FSF/Richard Stallman operation? (Did I get the organisation slash thing right Mr. Stallman? I wrote your organization first. "You forgot to write GNU/FSF/me is the greatest ever!" Ow! Stop hitting me. I will do better next time, I promise.)
GTA may not be appropriate for their pre teen child
This is a crock of shit. I played plenty of "evil" video games and saw plenty of "evil" violent movies, yet I haven't killed anyone yet. Not even people who clearly deserved it, and I have kidney failure, two strokes, and a bunch of other medical problems to prove it. Maybe those parents have realized such and are not the bad parents you seem to be making them out to be.
People who do screwed up things (then it is blamed on video games or whatever) were psychotic and antisocial before they played any games, and the games did not cause them to commit their crimes. If they hadn't played video games, then it would be something else to blame everything on.
So do we take away everything from everyone and lock them all in a padded cell, just because a few people have mental problems? Then if a single enforcer is antisocial, they will be permitted to torture thousands of people. How is that good?
Do we hand over the country to the taliban because they will supposedly solve all the social problems? (yet in reality will just gas, stone, or hange everyone who doesn't believe in their false god)
Doesn't sound like a solution to me. Sounds like it will just enable the true antisocial psychos to rule the world.
Wait...letting other people have your root password is bad? Oh crap!
...
It was all on AOL, so I'll just ask them to shutdown their service for a while and copy their user list for me so I can track down all the people I told. Easy fix.:-)
Taliban on fire (was Re:Shoe for Senate)
on
Is the ESRB Broken?
·
· Score: 1
I couldn't tell you what specifically means a game should be 'T' instead of 'E'.
It is whatever the residing taliban decides. Yesterday, it was nudity and violence. Today it is gambling. Tomorrow it might be kittens. Kittens are evil beings trying to take over the world. Mwahahahaaa!
Slashdot Mirror
Which is why checking signatures is important. ..or at least hashes. I suppose ISPs could just substitue in their public key for every one you download and slip in their own hashes, but it would be more difficult. Especially if you traded keys some other way--such as face to face swaps, but usually only the paraniod do that...
Good thing you are here. :-)
For some reason I thought there was an option in resolv.conf where you could specify a server to use for a specific domain name. I tried to look at the man page, but for some reason I was typing 'man /etc/resolv.conf' which doesn't work.
Nevermind, I was confused as to what you said. So how to fix it? Put the address in resolv.conf?
I think you are confused as to what this guy is saying. The judge ordered ICANN to take Spamhaus' domain off the DNS system. If people put the IP for spamhaus.org in their hosts file, they will still be able to use it.
Obvoiusly, Linux isn't easy, it is a server OS. You are supposed to be an admin to install and set it up. I don't recall saying Linux was easy, just Windows wasn't, but all these people say it was.
My Atari ST was relativly easy. The OS was already in ROM, and to run programs, you just had to put in the disk, and I think they were set up for booting. The Atari 8bits and TI49Aswere even easier--just put in a cartridge or disk and boot. Cart progs came up instantly. Though, there was no hard drive to muck up, so you didn't have to worry about questionable programs too much. There were some virii, but they didn't have many ways of spreading (bbses were for simple terminals, no ActiveX controls). Not like today where they install spyware, copy protection drivers, and the like. You can't even trust music CDs.
Those systems are gone now.
I thought Ubuntu used KDE? I just tried 6.06, and I am certain the programs were KDE. Maybe they changed it??? Or maybe I don't know the difference? I could've swore the programs were called kwhatever...
You have a dumpster computer too? The computer I'm using is from a dumpster in a storage lot.
About hating Macs, I'm not really keen on their hardware choices, but the current "wintel" machines have migrated to them. Software based power buttons--sometimes you have to pull the plug unless you are lucky enough to have a power unit with a physical switch. Motorized disk eject--slow and the machine can lock--no reason for that with read-only media. Things like that.
I tested network cards on Macs, and those "features" sucked. Especially when the Mac's state was messed by a bad board, and sometimes even the "hold down for 10 sec" trick didn't even work, but it wasn't really faster than pulling the plug anyway...
I haven't used any Macs recently, though "look and feel" don't really matter to me. Hiding things does irritate me too, but doesn't MS Windows do it too?
I haven't noticed the disk problems you have on your system, but then I don't really compare speeds or anything.
Look ma, I'm using my lazer spoon to eat my lazer cereal!
Munch Munch Munch...
Ow!!! My lazer spoon just cut off my face! Mommy! Mommy!
So you are saying I am a "pirate" at heart because I want to run SSH and an X Terminal on a DS when I get it? It would make accessing my Linux machines easier. (anyone have some good web pages which might explain how to do this?) I'm sure I'll need a mod chip for that.
Another reason to make modchips illegal: what about manufacturers who want to make compatible consoles. Right now it is probably difficult/illegal--why else have we not seen them. Plenty of people would want to buy a machine which could play games from the Gamecube, PS1/2, Xbox and such. The machine could even run regular computer programs (after all, a game machine is just a computer, though restricted)
[1] "Pirate" really should be copyright infringer or something like, but I guess it doesn't sound extreme enough for the entertainment cartel.
You know, your idea sounds a little like what the Circle p2p system uses for moderation. Except instead of modding by category, you see moderations done by people you like. So essentially conservatives see posts modded up by other conservative. Liberals see posts modded up by other liberals. Molecular biologists will see posts modded up by their peers. Everyone should be happy...
I think they took the idea from orkut or advogato or somewhere...
I don't really care if anyone switches. I'm just tired of seeing all the stupid MS crap. People claiming it's "easy to use" when they haven't seriously tried any other OSes. People saying you have to constantly do all this maintenance crap (defrags, spyware checks, registry cleaners, AV scans, etc) with your computer all the time having the attitude that these are normal things to worry about with a computer. People asking me to "fix" their broken MS installs (which usually means having to just reinstall the entire system) and it usually ends up broken again one way or another. Even installing a program is risky because MS took forever to come out with a real packaging format, so most programs are installed by running some executable, which there is no way to know what it will do to the computer. I remember Quicktime could completely bork an install. I don't have much experience with installing on XP though, because I started avoiding working with Windows before it came out.
The defrag prevention shouldn't slow down reads (I assume that is what you are talking about), in fact it should only really slow down allocation a little bit. I mean, how much processing time is it going to take? Unless you are talking about lots of small files. But even then, I'm sure it fills in the holes one way or another.
I wonder if the slowness may be something else. What about these two posibilities: Ultra DMA is off, and the fact Linux is a server OS (which makes it crappy for desktop use).
For DMA, have you played with hdparm? I think most distros don't turn on DMA by default because it is risky with some buggy motherboards. PIO mode is the default and slower for various reasons, including because it uses processing time. hdparm -d 1 /dev/hda should at least turn it on for your first hard drive.
Linux is a server OS, so everything assumes you will be running many active programs all competing for I/O and processing time, so it is generally opimized that way. Desktops usually only have 1, 2 or maybe 3 programs which are active at once, and often they won't be competing for the same resource anyway.
Version 2.6 of the kernel has a few options to at least help with this problem. The most notable is the one where (I forget the term) task switching can be set from the usual 100 times per second to 250 or 1000/sec.
Sometimes setting the nice value (man nice) to a high negative number such as -10 or -19 on what you want to run fast helps. You can also use realtime priority (I forget the command, then again maybe it isn't in the standard installs.) Use caution on realtime priority because a program not designed for it or one that is processor intensive can lock your machine. rt priority gives your program a higher priority than the kernel, so it has to voluntarily give up the processor back to the system.
Because Linux is a server OS, it is assumed admins will be tuning it. So, if you really want it to perform, you will need to play with it. /proc is another place to look I think, though I mostly just use it to tune networking. man proc, though I think there is a howto or doc in the kernel source for it too...
Since you already have a Mac I don't see why you wouldn't want to just stick with it. They designed OS X for PC users[1] from the ground up, didn't they? Using fink you should be able to get all of the programs which are available to Linux users. I'd probably switch to OS X, but after the strokes, I don't have much money and I have trouble learning new things, so I don't know how well I would do with it.
[1] Note I am using the original definition of PC (which was coined by Apple), not the MS definition where it supposedly means only a computer running a MS OS.
But if you really want to use Linux and actually like the MS Windows' way of doing things, try Ubuntu and if you don't want to download a big iso, they send
You must not have been reading slashdot lately. There have been plenty of reasonable posts on the other side which have been modded down, and plenty of questionable posts for the things you have said which have been modded up.
More likely extremist groups, shills, and such are working together to control moderation. So something which talks up their side is modded up, and anything which talks down their side or talks up "the enemy" is modded down.
No, those moderated groups probably dissapeared over time because a psycho control freak was the moderator. Unfortunately, most of the people who seek for moderation are control freaks. If reasonable people are moderators, it does seem to work.
Nothing kills a discussion system faster than all of the useful posters being chased away by: faq natzis, constant grammar and spelling corrections, attacks because someone was jealous the poster may know more about a subject, claims that clearly on topic posts are somehow off topic, and being modded out because of these stupid reasons and more.
Interesting. Since we are talking about moderation here...
Why did the parent get modded up, which didn't have much to it--a grammar correction and asking the guy if what he did worked, basicly. Not very interesting.
Yet, the grandparent, which had a great, apparently working idea, didn't get modded up at all.
Maybe hankwang has some friends with mod points??? Or have the grammar nazis taken over? Haha. Maybe Mr Wang is rich and has hired a third world nation to mod up his posts. Find out in the next episode of Slashdot Moderation Master Detective: The people must know!!!
Windows ME! ;-D ...and it is copyright infringment, not piracy. Copying files has nothing to do with raping and pillaging.
That is not the real reason. Copy protection waned a few years before most vendors started publishing on CDs. I got to the point where the vast majority of magazine reviews (not just random schmucks) complained if the program had any copy protection at all. People got really pissed off because of all the problems.
Why do I keep hearing MS users insist filesystems need to be defraged constantly? Real OSes have fragmentation prevention built in. The prevention is not perfect, but it beats runing defrag every day. Even linux has had it since ext2 came out at least a decade ago. If MS hasn't done this by now, then they should be bopped in the head. Then again, they make their own users afraid to upgrade. WTF???
The need for defrag on modern systems is a myth. Read here and here
If you are running a major corporation's computer infrastructure, you should forget Linux, Macs and Windows (at least as much as possible). Use big iron servers and give your users X Terminals. X Terminals are really cheap. If you can't find a good supplier, all you need is a box (with powersupply), motherboard/ram, network adapter (many motherboards come with those nowadays), video card (integrated is fine), something to boot from if needed (most bioses boot from network now, and I think all are flashable) and obviously a monitor. All that won't cost very much. Certainly less than a full blown computer. If a user really needs a Windows computer for that special app or a terminal doesn't cut it for them, then give them what they need. There are X Servers out there which will run on windows, and real OSs already have them, so you won't need a second box.
I haven't run enough big iron to know which OS is the best, however I'm certain it isn't a piddly microsoft one. In fact, I never heard of anyone using a MS OS on big iron.
For smaller companies/locations, a regular computer running one of the BSDs would probably be fine for your server(s).
First, list one new feature in Vista where all business users will absolutely need an upgrade. I haven't heard of any. That was my main point.
Even though what you are saying is true about MS eventually stopping support for XP, like that guy said, it won't be for quite a few years. And part of my point was most users don't need to constantly buy new software. And if they do need a new program which doesn't work on XP, then just upgrade that one computer to Vista (or the proper OS). And if MS rigs it so you are required to upgrade all computers at once...well fuck MS, they cause too many problems. That is the problem with vendor lock in. Your goal as system/network admin should be to help keep your company from being screwed by software and hardware vendors. How will they be able to stay in business and be profitable if they have all these problems from their computer systems?
A private NNTP server would probably be perfect for this guy. Then users could use their favorite client. (or just Outlook Express) They probably already have something installed. Much better than web-crap boards. (Admit it everyone, all web boards have a sucky interface. Even the new "XML improved" ones.) Only thing, I can't remember enough about the protocol to say how fast the server will update clients. It is instantly, isn't it???
I would only say upgrade from win95/98/me because they were total pieces of crap. But why WinXP? An operating system does not "wear out" so what is the use of a change? Maybe if there was some feature in the new OS they needed--though not many will. Maybe if it was to a much better OS (which I doubt Vista is) and they wanted to spend the money, but MS made sure nearly all of the competitors were wiped out along with the chances of improved desktop operating systems coming to fruition.
Where is the great OS coming which everyone must upgrade? In the dreams of users perhaps, but they probably won't see their dreams come true. Nobody is really researching toward a great system, they are all just slapping together buzzword features or copying older systems, wether they improve things or not. Even on the open source side, the major projects are Gnome and KDE, which actually try to clone win98 (couldn't they choose something better?!?) and certainly aren't any better than WinXP. Apparently they take the same psychotic drugs as those at MS, so their dialog boxes are just as screwed up.
If you computer works good enough, I don't see a reason to throw it away. Especially if there will be no improvement for the user in the new system. The only "improvements" I have heard about in Vista are better copy protection (which may cause problems for users) and a prettier interface--which will not increase productivity, and I have even heard it makes everything more difficult to read, which would most certainly decrease productivity. And that is what users need, something to help them with productivity, because no one wants to spend their free nights at work. (well except those who have a bad home life or something...)
But what do I know. I run "old mouldy" software. I am still runing Linux 2.4.x and use xfig for drawing...
Yeah sure. Just like the fucking shitty Aiptek camera I bought, when opened revealed an "EULA" which said (among other things) I wasn't allowed to let anyone else use it except immediate family and I am allowed to give it as a gift, but only if I never open the box! (Which you have to do to read the EULA in the first place!)
May all the cameras, microphones, keybords and other devices you buy have these clauses combined with a clause which says "you are not allowed to distribute content created by this device." Meaning if you type on the keyboard, the content is theirs. If you take a picture, the content is theirs. If you record a sound, the content is theirs.
See if you can live like that. Let's see you sell something when everyone else owns everything you create.
Once you sell a product, it isn't yours anymore. You can't dictate what other people do with it. Copyright law was only intended to make selling works in line with selling physical goods, not give vendors absolute control over something they don't even own anymore--that is what sale means, the buyer owns the property you sold. This includes copyrighted content.
The buyer bought the right to have and use a copy of the content, the only right they didn't buy is to redistribute copies of your content. If they do that, they are breaking copyright law. They are not breaking the law if they don't follow your EULA. In fact, by inserting a EULA into your product where they can't see it until after they buy it and open the box, you are breaking the law by creating a blank contract--the end user doesn't see it until after they "agree" to it. You people have been smoking too much SCO crack.
How many players do have DRM support? I haven't kept up with the news lately, but I thought the RIAA companies never managed to get a standard going. Are you telling me if I buy one of these obscure brand name MP3 players (ignore the apple ones and such), they all have some sort of DRM?
The intentions here may be good, but the execution is nearly at hypocritical levels.
What else could you expect from a FSF/Richard Stallman operation? (Did I get the organisation slash thing right Mr. Stallman? I wrote your organization first. "You forgot to write GNU/FSF/me is the greatest ever!" Ow! Stop hitting me. I will do better next time, I promise.)
This is a crock of shit. I played plenty of "evil" video games and saw plenty of "evil" violent movies, yet I haven't killed anyone yet. Not even people who clearly deserved it, and I have kidney failure, two strokes, and a bunch of other medical problems to prove it. Maybe those parents have realized such and are not the bad parents you seem to be making them out to be.
People who do screwed up things (then it is blamed on video games or whatever) were psychotic and antisocial before they played any games, and the games did not cause them to commit their crimes. If they hadn't played video games, then it would be something else to blame everything on.
So do we take away everything from everyone and lock them all in a padded cell, just because a few people have mental problems? Then if a single enforcer is antisocial, they will be permitted to torture thousands of people. How is that good?
Do we hand over the country to the taliban because they will supposedly solve all the social problems? (yet in reality will just gas, stone, or hange everyone who doesn't believe in their false god)
Doesn't sound like a solution to me. Sounds like it will just enable the true antisocial psychos to rule the world.
Wait...letting other people have your root password is bad? Oh crap!
...
It was all on AOL, so I'll just ask them to shutdown their service for a while and copy their user list for me so I can track down all the people I told. Easy fix. :-)
It is whatever the residing taliban decides. Yesterday, it was nudity and violence. Today it is gambling. Tomorrow it might be kittens. Kittens are evil beings trying to take over the world. Mwahahahaaa!