Fersure. This subtle advertising of SL piqued my curiousity enough, the other week when I was really frikkin' bored and trying to think of a geek activity I could share with my wiff, I actually installed the client.
I toyed about a bit. It was meh. I lost interest after a half-hour and haven't returned. Can't see what value I'd find in it. Wasn't overly entertaining, didn't learn much, didn't see much potential for anything more than simply wasting time.
If SL were truly the hot damnedest thing to ever hit the web, I'm fairly certain I'd have gleaned a bit more from the experience. I have to suspect that we geeks are being manipulated by our media.
The problem isn't with having access to FOSS tools: it's that one can be dinking around learning how to program, get good at it, develop a killer app, and then be sued into oblivion for having accidently treaded upon some patent or other.
No matter how much visual ice cream they put on it, it's still a turd underneath: a fundamentally insecure system with flaws that run right to its very core. Very impressive, but there is no long-term future for the OS.
The *only* reason the tech corporations are supporting the Bill is because it puts our money in their pockets. They could not care less about our freedoms, our rights, our desire to share and communicate. They just want to fuck us over.
Good god. They're probably also responsible for the rise of the idiocy of the "evolution debate." I imagine a science-illiterate, god-trusting nation of ignoramuses would make it far easier to sell cigarettes.
And it's not like the executives need ever give a damn for the carnage they cause: *their* families are certain to remain well-educated and well-opportuned: they're part of the elite. Heck, for those people, it's *better* if there are more lower-educated/lower-class people. More profitable, y'know.
...send out nice authentic laminated Apple business card-sized list of the serial number of the fubared batteries to all the airports it can muster. It's absurd to have all of something banned because some of them may have a problem.
...it's with privacy. I don't trust the web services to not use my information for their own nefarious purposes. They all expect to analyse my dataflow for marketing purposes, and I've no doubts that most of them will sell out specific information in a heartbeat.
Someone needs to commercialize a hard drive+interface intended for use as home NAS. It should use Tor to distribute one's data, encrypted, across the Tor network with redundancy, so that if one's personal drive disappears (is ripped off by police), one's data isn't gone with it.
It'll be like the torrent-capable routers: make 'em so end-user stupid-easy that anyone and everyone will want it. There'll be so many of these devices connected to the net as to render it impossible to shut down.
Sadly, most people (I'll bet upward of 80-90%) won't know, wouldn't understand, or wouldn't care. And so if the service is okay and the price is okay and it's convenient enough, most people will be dumb enough to use it.
Look at spam. There are so damn many idiots out there that you can make money simply spamming people.
My typical ballot includes over 50 selections -- I don't mean 50 options for a single race, I mean 50 separate decisions, including national, state, county and municipal officials, plus ballot initiatives, judicial retention votes and others that I can't remember right now.
And that is why your system is utterly broken: it's defeated by its size. It is beyond insanely overburdened: it has reached a point of being stupidly overburdened.
Technology isn't the answer. Lightening the burden is the answer. Simply the system. You don't need to cast fifty votes, and certainly not all at once.
What's new here is whether we let them get away with it. "It" being the use of negative campaigning as a means to deceive the uninformed audience.
There is opportunity here to inform the cow-like public that they are being manipulated by assholes. US elections have become a race among liars and crooks. Time to demand better, partly by taking responsibility for one's own role in the process.
If enough of us take the time to care about the social quality of the candidate, we can have a system of honest, compassionate, competent people who are in it because they want us all to do well. A rising tide floats all boats: the greater the common good (ocean), the greater the individual good (your boat).
The only way to have long-term generational success is to ensure we make sure everyone has the opportunity for good health, good education, good standards, and good safety.
Is it not obvious that Windows has become a joke of an OS? It's so crufty, so poorly-designed, so awful... why in gods name would anyone even give a moment's consideration toward "upgrading" to Vista? It's just going to be the same old shit, a little stinkier than before, in a brand new bucket.
Purchasing Windows these days is as stupid as purchasing a Ford Pinto. Sure, it has four wheels just like all the other OSes, but it's gonna crash and burn.
Do you hand hold them through supper preparations, lawn care, car maintenance? Probably not.
Take the same approach to computers.
When the n00b users finally get pissed off with the generally lousy quality of their OS and applications, maybe they'll number enough to force the developers to make computers work the way they *should* work: effortlessly.
In my decades of computer use, I've always been thrilled to find software that works intuitively and sophisticatedly. It doesn't happen often enough. It should.
This is an obvious for-profit agenda piece. Chances are pretty good the referrer (ArthurDent) is in the wonderful and expanding field of internet meme-seeding. Chances are pretty good the research, and the media placement, are paid by a lobby group funded by a loose group of big corporations with an interest in avoiding the costs of reducing CO2 and other pollutants.
I hope this kind of crap is called out each and every time it hits the Slashdot pages.
Slashdot Mirror
They could also choose a BSD base. I believe Apple and Sun are also using BSD, which seems a natural fit for a company like Oracle.
Fersure. This subtle advertising of SL piqued my curiousity enough, the other week when I was really frikkin' bored and trying to think of a geek activity I could share with my wiff, I actually installed the client.
I toyed about a bit. It was meh. I lost interest after a half-hour and haven't returned. Can't see what value I'd find in it. Wasn't overly entertaining, didn't learn much, didn't see much potential for anything more than simply wasting time.
If SL were truly the hot damnedest thing to ever hit the web, I'm fairly certain I'd have gleaned a bit more from the experience. I have to suspect that we geeks are being manipulated by our media.
The problem isn't with having access to FOSS tools: it's that one can be dinking around learning how to program, get good at it, develop a killer app, and then be sued into oblivion for having accidently treaded upon some patent or other.
"...it may inhibit, among other things, the ability of American coders to contribute to projects..."
Yup, indeed it will.
And the USA will not be as competitive in the world of software development.
Bullet, meet foot.
No matter how much visual ice cream they put on it, it's still a turd underneath: a fundamentally insecure system with flaws that run right to its very core. Very impressive, but there is no long-term future for the OS.
The sentient web-consciousness has detected us humans, and is trying to kill us!
Well, the geeks, anyway. Quit buggering with computers, you guys!
The *only* reason the tech corporations are supporting the Bill is because it puts our money in their pockets. They could not care less about our freedoms, our rights, our desire to share and communicate. They just want to fuck us over.
US Software Patent Examiners Hit Record High.
Because, judging by the kinds of patents they're approving these days, it's farqing weed city down there at the patent office.
Good god. They're probably also responsible for the rise of the idiocy of the "evolution debate." I imagine a science-illiterate, god-trusting nation of ignoramuses would make it far easier to sell cigarettes.
And it's not like the executives need ever give a damn for the carnage they cause: *their* families are certain to remain well-educated and well-opportuned: they're part of the elite. Heck, for those people, it's *better* if there are more lower-educated/lower-class people. More profitable, y'know.
Dude, AAC (1) has been shown time and again to be among the best-sounding audio formats, period; (2) is NOT an Apple codec.
er, absurd, at least, when the problematic ones are so easily identified.
...send out nice authentic laminated Apple business card-sized list of the serial number of the fubared batteries to all the airports it can muster. It's absurd to have all of something banned because some of them may have a problem.
Why in gods' names would this device need a full-fledged OS, much less one with as much crap attached as a Microsoft product?
How could the project designers not spec a more appropriate OS? There are literally *dozens* of alternatives that would make more sense.
Mind, it is Verizon. From all I've read, they typically can't find their arse with both hands and a copy of Grey's Anatomy.
...it's with privacy. I don't trust the web services to not use my information for their own nefarious purposes. They all expect to analyse my dataflow for marketing purposes, and I've no doubts that most of them will sell out specific information in a heartbeat.
Someone needs to commercialize a hard drive+interface intended for use as home NAS. It should use Tor to distribute one's data, encrypted, across the Tor network with redundancy, so that if one's personal drive disappears (is ripped off by police), one's data isn't gone with it.
It'll be like the torrent-capable routers: make 'em so end-user stupid-easy that anyone and everyone will want it. There'll be so many of these devices connected to the net as to render it impossible to shut down.
Sadly, most people (I'll bet upward of 80-90%) won't know, wouldn't understand, or wouldn't care. And so if the service is okay and the price is okay and it's convenient enough, most people will be dumb enough to use it.
Look at spam. There are so damn many idiots out there that you can make money simply spamming people.
Pathetic.
My typical ballot includes over 50 selections -- I don't mean 50 options for a single race, I mean 50 separate decisions, including national, state, county and municipal officials, plus ballot initiatives, judicial retention votes and others that I can't remember right now.
And that is why your system is utterly broken: it's defeated by its size. It is beyond insanely overburdened: it has reached a point of being stupidly overburdened.
Technology isn't the answer. Lightening the burden is the answer. Simply the system. You don't need to cast fifty votes, and certainly not all at once.
A lot.
Touché! You are, of course, entirely correct.
Still, those of us with some IQ and compassion have got to at least make an effort.
What's new here is whether we let them get away with it. "It" being the use of negative campaigning as a means to deceive the uninformed audience.
There is opportunity here to inform the cow-like public that they are being manipulated by assholes. US elections have become a race among liars and crooks. Time to demand better, partly by taking responsibility for one's own role in the process.
If enough of us take the time to care about the social quality of the candidate, we can have a system of honest, compassionate, competent people who are in it because they want us all to do well. A rising tide floats all boats: the greater the common good (ocean), the greater the individual good (your boat).
The only way to have long-term generational success is to ensure we make sure everyone has the opportunity for good health, good education, good standards, and good safety.
Er, yah. And you know, you don't have to pay your taxes! ALL ONE OR NONE!
Is it not obvious that Windows has become a joke of an OS? It's so crufty, so poorly-designed, so awful ... why in gods name would anyone even give a moment's consideration toward "upgrading" to Vista? It's just going to be the same old shit, a little stinkier than before, in a brand new bucket.
Purchasing Windows these days is as stupid as purchasing a Ford Pinto. Sure, it has four wheels just like all the other OSes, but it's gonna crash and burn.
Do you hand hold them through supper preparations, lawn care, car maintenance? Probably not.
Take the same approach to computers.
When the n00b users finally get pissed off with the generally lousy quality of their OS and applications, maybe they'll number enough to force the developers to make computers work the way they *should* work: effortlessly.
In my decades of computer use, I've always been thrilled to find software that works intuitively and sophisticatedly. It doesn't happen often enough. It should.
Completely unusable?
I guess I've simply been dreaming that I've used Opera continuously since its v2 days.
Strangely, there are a number of behaviours in Opera that I've yearned to have in other applications. But that's such a silly idea: Opera is ususable!
This is an obvious for-profit agenda piece. Chances are pretty good the referrer (ArthurDent) is in the wonderful and expanding field of internet meme-seeding. Chances are pretty good the research, and the media placement, are paid by a lobby group funded by a loose group of big corporations with an interest in avoiding the costs of reducing CO2 and other pollutants.
I hope this kind of crap is called out each and every time it hits the Slashdot pages.