You definitely have a point, however we have a lot of unhappy yet outwardly successful people that may benefit society in some form or fashion, but how much more useful would they be if they were actually happy with themseleves?
If an individual is personally fulfilled and content that will spill into every area of their life and influence those around them.
As far as coding goes, I program because I enjoy it, the fact that I derive a salary from it is secondary in my mind since I would do it even if I didn't get paid. In fact I did just that when I worked in retail, I coded for fun, now I happen to get paid because of the services offered related to stuff I work on. I think coding is in many ways like writing poetry or any other form of artisitc expression, although far more utilitarian, that the best work is produced by those who love what they do even though really anyone could learn to do it 'technicaly'...
They are not neccessarily tied together. I wouldn't mind having more money than I do now, but it is not necessary and so I don't strive for it since I am happy where I am. My coworkers are much the same, we have a balance that we're comfortable with. The problem is that many people, and it has been questioned elsewhere in relation to this article, associate money with success/hapiness/fulfillment/etc. and that is a fleeting association. Many of the richest men in the world are divorced multiple times over and are so consumed with making more money that they don't 'enjoy' much of the other things that life has to offer. Then again, there are many people who have what could be described as a lot of money and are perfectly happy, primarily in my estimation, because they are not driven simply to get more. The pursuit of money is not healthy just like the pursuit of other substances is not healthy. The key is moderation and most people are too busy, as the cliche goes, 'trying to keep up with the Jones'' to stop and be happy and content with what they do have.
My software does release the software under GPL, that's why I said it was free not just open. In reply to the previous AC post, I don't talk about the company I work for because that is not so relevant and because I don't want anyone to construe my posts as promotion.
My company doesn't make a killing like other companies but we make enough and enjoy what we do which is better than being loaded with cash and miserable.
I work for a company that releases all our software as free software but makes money by supporting it, cutomizing it and consulting on it. Our market is small and developers are few, but we get the job done, and no one is going hungry as far as I know. I don't have any animosity towards Microsoft except as it relates to the fact that their software exposes me to a great deal of risk because of the bugs, but I think they have every right to do software the way they have chosen. Open Source and Free Software isn't the only way to do software, but it can many times be the better way to do software from a quality and agility standpoint...
That I can't disagree with. All of Iraq, save that we actually got Saddam, has been an exercise in idiocy. I think that getting rid of Saddam by itself was worth something, but not the loss of lives we are suffering every day over there.
... get our hard earned money in the form of "tax breaks."...
"Are you stoned or just stupid?" -Dogma
Since when can a person get back money they never paid in the first place. I know there are ways to do this with other taxes outside of income but seriously, when did you ever know anybody who got back more income tax refunded than they paid in, that doesn't happen to anyone I know. Tax breaks allow you to keep more of your money, the fact that we take money from a bunch of people and then give it to those who don't pay taxes in the form of social programs is the real sickness in the system...
Why did they wait so long to let people know in a public way that this was !DUH! illegal? Were they waiting for people to download the source and then go RIAA-style on them?
Red Hat, FreeBSD, VA Software who owns ODSN and SourceForge. Open Source is thriving here much as it is globally. To treat the US as though they are nothing but a hinderance to OSS because of some other ill-will is just silly.
I wouldn't say capitalism is a stifling factor though since things are seeming to work ok here in america, the IP stuff is a mess, not directly because of capitalism but because of the power special interests wield in our political system and how we have structured and freely hand out patents. My whole point though is that the special interests are the ones to blame, not capitalism as an economic system. Freedom to exchange ideas though in the open source model is just as freely protected, copyleft, as the freedom to horde ideas, copyright. Unfortunately we are seeing horders given more and more privelege, but if we intelligently employ the system we can glean many of those benefits for sharers as well.
I may be completely wrong, but it all works out neatly in my head.
I find it mildly amusing that protecting capitalism is linked to this seeing as how our capitalist economy here in the U.S. has more than its fair share of open source development houses and they are doing just fine. I think capitalism is less to blame than big money IP special interests, they might be a better, more specific target than a particular economic system. Of course identifying the particular interests would go a long ways too....
Personally I wouldn't mind having my taxes done for me as a public service. At the federal level maybe this would inspire simplification of the tax codes if the government had to shoulder the burden of handling returns completely internally. I mean as long as they maximize my deductions and such then they would save me a little money and time. Of course the government having that kind and quantity of information on me is a little troubling as much as governments tend to abuse power. At the state level, well in Louisiana they can barely count so I am better off doing my own taxes than any beuracrat...
Why is it that open discussion only really extends so far? We are free to chase rabbits in some areas but not in others? Why is it that when I post anything with a Christian implication or overtone that I get consistently moderated as Flamebait/Offtopic/Overrated. I chase rabbits that are presented by those that post or respond to posts and I get penalized for fostering discussion? What kind of idiots are you? I will seriously reconsider sponsoring Slashdot again when my current subscription is up.
-- NOTE TO MODERS: This is what is called discussion, yes it is OT but that is how discussions can go. Post if you don't like something, don't moderate. When will people learn. --
AC below you is noting that 'dong toucher' was lifted from parent post that I replied to. And no, I am not better. I am not an adulterer, drunkard and as far as my recollection serves have not been decietful recently, although I can not in good faith say never. I think your knee-jerk reaction to what I posted is a bit zealous in its tone. But back to the initial assertion: I am not better than you, nor did I claim to be. I am forgiven of my sinfulness because of my acceptance of Christ and my continuing desire to be conformed to His likeness. It is not unusual for people to misinterpret what I say though, I usually just get modded down though. The essential difference between a Christian and non is the desire to cast away their sinfulness in favor of the righteousness of Christ. It is not meant to imply that I/we are in any way above reproach or better than non-believers, we are simply different.
I am not opposed to teaching evolution in schools, I am in favor of treating it as a theory though. I intend to introduce my children to evolution as part of their homeschooling, but as a theory relating to creation and how it might or might not line up with the Bible. My biggest problem is that it is used as a defense to try and disprove the truth of the Bible and is treated as fact when it has yet to be and probably can not be proven. I have posted previously on my views of the relation between religion and science and got modded down for them. I find the fact that open discussion only extends so far to be a bit troubling, but what is one to do.:-)
I have read Gerald Schroeder's work, which seems to be along the lines of what you are implying, I find the idea interesting though not thoroughly convincing. I tend to treat creation in much the same way as the end times. It did/will happen and God had/has it under control. In the face of inssuficient scientific evidence to explain evolution and the like I will go with the conservative literal creationist view until evidence suffices to make an alternative view thoroughly convincing.
It is wrong, but I said Christian, not Catholic(unfair generalization). In fact I am a Southern Baptist, so a better charge might be 'queer hater/homophobe' although that doesn't really apply to me since a homosexual is no worse off in my book than a liar, adulterer, drunkard or other non-repentent sinner. Certainly they are no worse than I was before I accepted Christ.
If you are indeed a long time 'dong toucher' AC, I suggest you seek professional psychiatric and legal counsel.
I Agree. I have all my security settings turned to an appropriate level. With the exception of trusted sites, everyhting that happens requires my acceptance, so I am personally fairly safe, as far as I can be proactively. I can't say this with any certainty but other than IE do any other browsers allow installation of a remote file at all, let alone over top of an existing file? Plug-ins don't autoinstall on my Mac and javascript and Java run in a 'protected box' that limits their access to the system if I recall correctly. So this sort of thing really isn't an issue if all of that is as I believe.
Other than the historical value and the renewed hope that if we can find one beagle we can find another what will this mean? I have never been a fan of evolution as a Christian but find much of Darwin's work interesting. Are there any new discoveries we might make about him or his work from this (possible) find?
Interesting take. I know my wife likes ecards because it is of course free which beats a card and stamp. She doesn't use them very often, except when she comes across a particularly funny or expressive one, and only when we forget to get a real card...:-)
This definitely could be a nasty little thing, thanks to poor security on remote executables. Wouldn't modification of default internet security settings go a long way to resolve this particular instance? Of course as a Mac user I don't have much to worry about with this.
Does anyone else think that our society is overdue on becoming fed up with all these sort of things?
Education is the key to avoiding a Linux distro monoculture. The average computer user just isn't very bright, partially cause they choose to only do what is necessary to survive.
I think the bigger more blarring issue is security by default and bug-free code. The first one is not so tough to implement. In my thinking a linux system should have all services disabled by default and a very aggressive firewall ruleset upon install and then respond as the user turns things on and begins working with the system to loosen security, with sufficient nagging along the way to warn them of their increasing exposure. The second may be more difficult if not impossible to really achieve. But if it is what we strive for it will definitely help matters a great deal.
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You definitely have a point, however we have a lot of unhappy yet outwardly successful people that may benefit society in some form or fashion, but how much more useful would they be if they were actually happy with themseleves?
If an individual is personally fulfilled and content that will spill into every area of their life and influence those around them.
As far as coding goes, I program because I enjoy it, the fact that I derive a salary from it is secondary in my mind since I would do it even if I didn't get paid. In fact I did just that when I worked in retail, I coded for fun, now I happen to get paid because of the services offered related to stuff I work on. I think coding is in many ways like writing poetry or any other form of artisitc expression, although far more utilitarian, that the best work is produced by those who love what they do even though really anyone could learn to do it 'technicaly'...
They are not neccessarily tied together. I wouldn't mind having more money than I do now, but it is not necessary and so I don't strive for it since I am happy where I am. My coworkers are much the same, we have a balance that we're comfortable with. The problem is that many people, and it has been questioned elsewhere in relation to this article, associate money with success/hapiness/fulfillment/etc. and that is a fleeting association. Many of the richest men in the world are divorced multiple times over and are so consumed with making more money that they don't 'enjoy' much of the other things that life has to offer. Then again, there are many people who have what could be described as a lot of money and are perfectly happy, primarily in my estimation, because they are not driven simply to get more. The pursuit of money is not healthy just like the pursuit of other substances is not healthy. The key is moderation and most people are too busy, as the cliche goes, 'trying to keep up with the Jones'' to stop and be happy and content with what they do have.
'company', not 'software' at second word point.
My software does release the software under GPL, that's why I said it was free not just open. In reply to the previous AC post, I don't talk about the company I work for because that is not so relevant and because I don't want anyone to construe my posts as promotion.
My company doesn't make a killing like other companies but we make enough and enjoy what we do which is better than being loaded with cash and miserable.
Agreed.
I work for a company that releases all our software as free software but makes money by supporting it, cutomizing it and consulting on it. Our market is small and developers are few, but we get the job done, and no one is going hungry as far as I know. I don't have any animosity towards Microsoft except as it relates to the fact that their software exposes me to a great deal of risk because of the bugs, but I think they have every right to do software the way they have chosen. Open Source and Free Software isn't the only way to do software, but it can many times be the better way to do software from a quality and agility standpoint...
That's my $0.02...
That I can't disagree with. All of Iraq, save that we actually got Saddam, has been an exercise in idiocy. I think that getting rid of Saddam by itself was worth something, but not the loss of lives we are suffering every day over there.
So will this mean that when programs load they will have a 'Blue screen of Theft'?
Why did they wait so long to let people know in a public way that this was !DUH! illegal? Were they waiting for people to download the source and then go RIAA-style on them?
I'd donate as well as keep writing letters like I already do. Could the FSF or OSI, my preference would be FSF, take on such a role?
Red Hat, FreeBSD, VA Software who owns ODSN and SourceForge. Open Source is thriving here much as it is globally. To treat the US as though they are nothing but a hinderance to OSS because of some other ill-will is just silly.
I wouldn't say capitalism is a stifling factor though since things are seeming to work ok here in america, the IP stuff is a mess, not directly because of capitalism but because of the power special interests wield in our political system and how we have structured and freely hand out patents. My whole point though is that the special interests are the ones to blame, not capitalism as an economic system. Freedom to exchange ideas though in the open source model is just as freely protected, copyleft, as the freedom to horde ideas, copyright. Unfortunately we are seeing horders given more and more privelege, but if we intelligently employ the system we can glean many of those benefits for sharers as well.
I may be completely wrong, but it all works out neatly in my head.
I find it mildly amusing that protecting capitalism is linked to this seeing as how our capitalist economy here in the U.S. has more than its fair share of open source development houses and they are doing just fine. I think capitalism is less to blame than big money IP special interests, they might be a better, more specific target than a particular economic system. Of course identifying the particular interests would go a long ways too....
Personally I wouldn't mind having my taxes done for me as a public service. At the federal level maybe this would inspire simplification of the tax codes if the government had to shoulder the burden of handling returns completely internally. I mean as long as they maximize my deductions and such then they would save me a little money and time. Of course the government having that kind and quantity of information on me is a little troubling as much as governments tend to abuse power. At the state level, well in Louisiana they can barely count so I am better off doing my own taxes than any beuracrat...
Will they be able to keep the code base clean though or as they add new stuff will it just get all messy again?
Why is it that open discussion only really extends so far? We are free to chase rabbits in some areas but not in others? Why is it that when I post anything with a Christian implication or overtone that I get consistently moderated as Flamebait/Offtopic/Overrated. I chase rabbits that are presented by those that post or respond to posts and I get penalized for fostering discussion? What kind of idiots are you? I will seriously reconsider sponsoring Slashdot again when my current subscription is up.
--
NOTE TO MODERS: This is what is called discussion, yes it is OT but that is how discussions can go. Post if you don't like something, don't moderate. When will people learn.
--
AC below you is noting that 'dong toucher' was lifted from parent post that I replied to. And no, I am not better. I am not an adulterer, drunkard and as far as my recollection serves have not been decietful recently, although I can not in good faith say never. I think your knee-jerk reaction to what I posted is a bit zealous in its tone. But back to the initial assertion: I am not better than you, nor did I claim to be. I am forgiven of my sinfulness because of my acceptance of Christ and my continuing desire to be conformed to His likeness. It is not unusual for people to misinterpret what I say though, I usually just get modded down though. The essential difference between a Christian and non is the desire to cast away their sinfulness in favor of the righteousness of Christ. It is not meant to imply that I/we are in any way above reproach or better than non-believers, we are simply different.
I am not opposed to teaching evolution in schools, I am in favor of treating it as a theory though. I intend to introduce my children to evolution as part of their homeschooling, but as a theory relating to creation and how it might or might not line up with the Bible. My biggest problem is that it is used as a defense to try and disprove the truth of the Bible and is treated as fact when it has yet to be and probably can not be proven. I have posted previously on my views of the relation between religion and science and got modded down for them. I find the fact that open discussion only extends so far to be a bit troubling, but what is one to do. :-)
I have read Gerald Schroeder's work, which seems to be along the lines of what you are implying, I find the idea interesting though not thoroughly convincing. I tend to treat creation in much the same way as the end times. It did/will happen and God had/has it under control. In the face of inssuficient scientific evidence to explain evolution and the like I will go with the conservative literal creationist view until evidence suffices to make an alternative view thoroughly convincing.
It is wrong, but I said Christian, not Catholic(unfair generalization). In fact I am a Southern Baptist, so a better charge might be 'queer hater/homophobe' although that doesn't really apply to me since a homosexual is no worse off in my book than a liar, adulterer, drunkard or other non-repentent sinner. Certainly they are no worse than I was before I accepted Christ.
If you are indeed a long time 'dong toucher' AC, I suggest you seek professional psychiatric and legal counsel.
I Agree. I have all my security settings turned to an appropriate level. With the exception of trusted sites, everyhting that happens requires my acceptance, so I am personally fairly safe, as far as I can be proactively. I can't say this with any certainty but other than IE do any other browsers allow installation of a remote file at all, let alone over top of an existing file? Plug-ins don't autoinstall on my Mac and javascript and Java run in a 'protected box' that limits their access to the system if I recall correctly. So this sort of thing really isn't an issue if all of that is as I believe.
Other than the historical value and the renewed hope that if we can find one beagle we can find another what will this mean? I have never been a fan of evolution as a Christian but find much of Darwin's work interesting. Are there any new discoveries we might make about him or his work from this (possible) find?
Interesting take. I know my wife likes ecards because it is of course free which beats a card and stamp. She doesn't use them very often, except when she comes across a particularly funny or expressive one, and only when we forget to get a real card... :-)
---
Mod me down...I'm already -1....woot!
This definitely could be a nasty little thing, thanks to poor security on remote executables. Wouldn't modification of default internet security settings go a long way to resolve this particular instance? Of course as a Mac user I don't have much to worry about with this.
Does anyone else think that our society is overdue on becoming fed up with all these sort of things?
---
Mod me down, I'm already -1...woot!
Education is the key to avoiding a Linux distro monoculture. The average computer user just isn't very bright, partially cause they choose to only do what is necessary to survive.
I think the bigger more blarring issue is security by default and bug-free code. The first one is not so tough to implement. In my thinking a linux system should have all services disabled by default and a very aggressive firewall ruleset upon install and then respond as the user turns things on and begins working with the system to loosen security, with sufficient nagging along the way to warn them of their increasing exposure. The second may be more difficult if not impossible to really achieve. But if it is what we strive for it will definitely help matters a great deal.