Some people, like myself, are actually forced into using it because so many friends & coworkers use facebook exclusively for communication. (So fucking sad, I know) I'd love to delete my profile, and move to the 'next facebook', which will hopefully have more discretion than this one. As a result of these changes I've stripped my profile down to the bare minimum. They get my name, my email addy, and my current city. Nothing else. I just resent the fact that facebook keeps opting me into crap automatically, resetting privacy values to 'share everything' every time they make a change, and then completely obfuscate the procedure to make everything private again.
A day before Coulter's speech at the University of Western Ontario, an e-mail to Coulter from Francois Houle, provost of the University of Ottawa, was leaked to the media. The e-mail warned that "promoting hatred against any identifiable group would not only be considered inappropriate, but could in fact lead to criminal charges." Coulter released a public statement claiming that by sending her the e-mail, Houle was promoting hatred against conservatives.
Wouldn't the more logical interpretation of the email be simply to inform her of the law? I mean, she's not really known for making statements in the past that could be considered in violation of our laws, is she? And how did her speech go at Western again? She told a muslim student to 'take a camel' instead of an airplane? I think she just had the wrong venue, an institute of higher learning just isn't the place for her. We have Holiday Inn.
Would I be able to copy mp3s to a thumb drive and play them from my car deck like I currently can? I haven't checked the android app store for a spotify client, but switching to win mobile just isn't an option. Running a client through wine on a netbook, while almost certainly possible on a 'lesser' machine, isn't ideal compared to something like xmms. Would amarok be able to read them? Ipod issues?
All of the above are just a few of the things I can currently do with my music collection, and any drm-related scheme that will either take away or complicate what I can currently do will simply never be an acceptable alternative. Drm has to add some functionality or some other value to it in order for me to get behind it.
Not trolling, but I have a much different take on this. While under the current 'model' of the internet, yes it does cost money to create content, I don't believe that if there were no advertising revenue to be had the internet would cease to exist. People would still create content, as they do now, of varying quality, and given that the original purpose of the internet was to share information, I believe that content would still be distributed. Now, you'd have an argument that the internet as we know it now likely wouldn't have grown as quickly or widely as it has without the support of advertisers, but I think it would still contain much of the same mix of quality and trash content. We'd just have the problem of sorting through all the crap without google...
It sort of boggled my mind to see how many people didn't have a basic understanding of their system.
Keeping in mind this is slashdot, come on, a basic understanding of their system? Most people drive cars every day, but have little clue of what actually makes the car go. And most simply don't care. If it breaks, they take it to a mechanic, and they do the same with computers. (Personally I pity anyone who's worked in a computer repair shop, your heads must hurt awfully bad when you hear someone say "my internet is broken.")
When it comes to computers:
People will always punch the monkey.
People will always install the 'free' toolbar.
People will always download executable attachments.
People will always pick one of the 'top 10 easily guessed' passwords
People will always $STUPID_MOVE_HERE.
I think we are technologically-informed than we were 10 years ago, just not any wiser in the actual use of it.
I don't think you're trolling, because many of the things you mention are true, but I personally haven't met anyone who's installed a fresh copy of windows, rebooted and had everything 'just work.' There's always some litany of things to tweak and set up after an install no matter which OS you happen to favor. As for linux, if you use stuff like Ubuntu or any of the other user-friendly distros, a 'sudo apt-get (whatever)' is usually enough to fix many issues without much additional configuration. You have a point with gaming on linux, there isn't much out there, aside from whatever you can get running with wine. I gave up gaming on linux a while ago, and go for console gaming nowadays. Simpler than anything which may involve messing around with drivers.
I think the 'average user' has changed, though. Just using facebook, twitter, and all the other social networking crap has to have some positive effect as to their technological knowledge. Not to mention all the other assorted technological crap we all get exposed to. Smartphones, etc. I just think the 'average joe/jane' understands more now than they did even a couple of years ago, if my 70-year-old mother's recent questions regarding an iphone is any indication.
The difference here is that we have nukes, which function well as a sort of universal trump card.
I dunno, in my opinion when it comes to WMD's, nukes take a back seat to biologicals. Cheaper, easier (than nukes) to obtain, maintain and much more flexible. If an alien race was of the mind to wipe us out, I'm sure that the could borrow a genetics textbook or two and whip up something really nasty that (most likely) not have any effect on themselves whatsoever. Say, one nasty bug for each human blood group?
how does your borrowing argument relate to dictionaries?
I'd bet that the borrower would simply ask to borrow it again when needed. People are lazy, and if they can get it for free and minimal effort, they will. Reference books go out of date quickly, so many would be just for historical reference rather than actual use. And it would largely depend on the subject area. I have a ton of biology textbooks which are painfully out of date, especially those on genetics.
I actually find that published books written by experts are better than some random blog or website when you want to learn about something.
For the most part, I'd totally agree, but it's awfully hard to beat the convenience of hammering something into google for a quick result. Personally I love books, have more of them than shelves at the moment, and my preference will always be reading something of actual paper than a screen.
As for the industry, I feel little in the way of pity for them. Recently when the Canadian dollar was on par with the USD there was some complaint about the pricing of some products. Prices on books, particularly, were still significantly more expensive in Canadian funds than the listed price in USD. The industry response? They stopped printing the US prices.
Grab a slackware-based livedcd, burn onto rw & boot. Ftp/copy relevant config files to something that will survive a reboot. Take note of what kernel modules are loaded, etc. Easy fix for many problems, I've found.
Haven't read through all the posts, so not sure if it's been addressed yet, but would something like xlink kai be able to come up with a solution to the problem?
Been Cape-Breton-Free for years now, on the other side of the country enjoying the oh-so-lovely -28C we've had the past couple of days. Take it from me, it's a truly 'unique' sensation to have snot freeze into icicles as it's comes out of your nose...
(Actually, I've been smoking less and less this week, haven't - and won't - buy a new pack once this last one's gone. With this news, the 1 in 15 smokes stat is a real motivator!)
You do realize that skipping the commercials deprives the advertiser of the eyeballs that he is paying for and such is stealing from the advertiser.
Well, there is another way to look at this, too. I'm already paying for the advertising to be sent in to me, along with regular programming, so the advertiser isn't losing a dime. The 'potential' sales due to being watched by so many eyeballs is what the advertiser is counting on. To me it seems the vast majority of commercials aired now appear to be targeting an intellectual audience composed of 3-year-olds, and tend to turn me off of buying a particular brand simply because I feel that purchasing a product with such inane advertising will only encourage the advertising agency to produce more. (I haven't eaten Subway in years) I would actually pay a premium for television or programming to be completely commercial-free, or rather, to not see commercials. I doubt that I'm the only one.
Dunno where exactly in Canada you happen to live, but the last time (Christmas) I was in London, Ontario, Computer Liquidators still had display models of various netbooks running Moblin(?) linux. I wasn't in the market for one, so I didn't look all that closely, but it sure wasn't Windows. Maybe they still do.
Slashdot Mirror
There's no other species on earth quite like any other species on earth, period.
Some people, like myself, are actually forced into using it because so many friends & coworkers use facebook exclusively for communication. (So fucking sad, I know) I'd love to delete my profile, and move to the 'next facebook', which will hopefully have more discretion than this one. As a result of these changes I've stripped my profile down to the bare minimum. They get my name, my email addy, and my current city. Nothing else. I just resent the fact that facebook keeps opting me into crap automatically, resetting privacy values to 'share everything' every time they make a change, and then completely obfuscate the procedure to make everything private again.
Not really. Pardon the rip from wikipedia, but..
A day before Coulter's speech at the University of Western Ontario, an e-mail to Coulter from Francois Houle, provost of the University of Ottawa, was leaked to the media. The e-mail warned that "promoting hatred against any identifiable group would not only be considered inappropriate, but could in fact lead to criminal charges." Coulter released a public statement claiming that by sending her the e-mail, Houle was promoting hatred against conservatives.
Wouldn't the more logical interpretation of the email be simply to inform her of the law? I mean, she's not really known for making statements in the past that could be considered in violation of our laws, is she? And how did her speech go at Western again? She told a muslim student to 'take a camel' instead of an airplane? I think she just had the wrong venue, an institute of higher learning just isn't the place for her. We have Holiday Inn.
So you're still using a green monochrome 12" CRT for your monitor then?
Nah, green's too hard on the eyes after a while, got that sickly amber color instead.
That entirely depends in what province you're in.
Would I be able to copy mp3s to a thumb drive and play them from my car deck like I currently can? I haven't checked the android app store for a spotify client, but switching to win mobile just isn't an option. Running a client through wine on a netbook, while almost certainly possible on a 'lesser' machine, isn't ideal compared to something like xmms. Would amarok be able to read them? Ipod issues?
All of the above are just a few of the things I can currently do with my music collection, and any drm-related scheme that will either take away or complicate what I can currently do will simply never be an acceptable alternative. Drm has to add some functionality or some other value to it in order for me to get behind it.
"All this has happened before, and all this will happen again."
Not trolling, but I have a much different take on this. While under the current 'model' of the internet, yes it does cost money to create content, I don't believe that if there were no advertising revenue to be had the internet would cease to exist. People would still create content, as they do now, of varying quality, and given that the original purpose of the internet was to share information, I believe that content would still be distributed. Now, you'd have an argument that the internet as we know it now likely wouldn't have grown as quickly or widely as it has without the support of advertisers, but I think it would still contain much of the same mix of quality and trash content. We'd just have the problem of sorting through all the crap without google...
Or a movie. Get Uwe Boll to direct...
(The sad thing is that I can just about believe that)
It sort of boggled my mind to see how many people didn't have a basic understanding of their system.
Keeping in mind this is slashdot, come on, a basic understanding of their system? Most people drive cars every day, but have little clue of what actually makes the car go. And most simply don't care. If it breaks, they take it to a mechanic, and they do the same with computers. (Personally I pity anyone who's worked in a computer repair shop, your heads must hurt awfully bad when you hear someone say "my internet is broken.")
When it comes to computers:
People will always punch the monkey.
People will always install the 'free' toolbar.
People will always download executable attachments.
People will always pick one of the 'top 10 easily guessed' passwords
People will always $STUPID_MOVE_HERE.
I think we are technologically-informed than we were 10 years ago, just not any wiser in the actual use of it.
I don't think you're trolling, because many of the things you mention are true, but I personally haven't met anyone who's installed a fresh copy of windows, rebooted and had everything 'just work.' There's always some litany of things to tweak and set up after an install no matter which OS you happen to favor. As for linux, if you use stuff like Ubuntu or any of the other user-friendly distros, a 'sudo apt-get (whatever)' is usually enough to fix many issues without much additional configuration. You have a point with gaming on linux, there isn't much out there, aside from whatever you can get running with wine. I gave up gaming on linux a while ago, and go for console gaming nowadays. Simpler than anything which may involve messing around with drivers.
I think the 'average user' has changed, though. Just using facebook, twitter, and all the other social networking crap has to have some positive effect as to their technological knowledge. Not to mention all the other assorted technological crap we all get exposed to. Smartphones, etc. I just think the 'average joe/jane' understands more now than they did even a couple of years ago, if my 70-year-old mother's recent questions regarding an iphone is any indication.
Tell your neighbour to buy a wireless print server and be done with it, should be cheaper than buying a new printer.
People aren't eggs.
We were all eggs at one time...
The difference here is that we have nukes, which function well as a sort of universal trump card.
I dunno, in my opinion when it comes to WMD's, nukes take a back seat to biologicals. Cheaper, easier (than nukes) to obtain, maintain and much more flexible. If an alien race was of the mind to wipe us out, I'm sure that the could borrow a genetics textbook or two and whip up something really nasty that (most likely) not have any effect on themselves whatsoever. Say, one nasty bug for each human blood group?
That, or just give us more oil...
how does your borrowing argument relate to dictionaries?
I'd bet that the borrower would simply ask to borrow it again when needed. People are lazy, and if they can get it for free and minimal effort, they will. Reference books go out of date quickly, so many would be just for historical reference rather than actual use. And it would largely depend on the subject area. I have a ton of biology textbooks which are painfully out of date, especially those on genetics.
I actually find that published books written by experts are better than some random blog or website when you want to learn about something.
For the most part, I'd totally agree, but it's awfully hard to beat the convenience of hammering something into google for a quick result. Personally I love books, have more of them than shelves at the moment, and my preference will always be reading something of actual paper than a screen.
As for the industry, I feel little in the way of pity for them. Recently when the Canadian dollar was on par with the USD there was some complaint about the pricing of some products. Prices on books, particularly, were still significantly more expensive in Canadian funds than the listed price in USD. The industry response? They stopped printing the US prices.
Grab a slackware-based livedcd, burn onto rw & boot. Ftp/copy relevant config files to something that will survive a reboot. Take note of what kernel modules are loaded, etc. Easy fix for many problems, I've found.
Haven't read through all the posts, so not sure if it's been addressed yet, but would something like xlink kai be able to come up with a solution to the problem?
Unless the 15th one isn't labeled, then it's harder.
This being Canada, of course the 15th (or so) one isn't labelled. But of course, it ain't tobacco either!
Been Cape-Breton-Free for years now, on the other side of the country enjoying the oh-so-lovely -28C we've had the past couple of days. Take it from me, it's a truly 'unique' sensation to have snot freeze into icicles as it's comes out of your nose...
Depends on where I'm working... now if it were a post office....
You can't walk up to someone on the street and say "I'm gonna kill you" without consequences.
You should try bartending sometime, you hear a lot of the above 'round last call.
Those bills are notoriously difficult to spot, lend them to me and I'll outline the numbers for you!
Well I just quit.
(Actually, I've been smoking less and less this week, haven't - and won't - buy a new pack once this last one's gone. With this news, the 1 in 15 smokes stat is a real motivator!)
You do realize that skipping the commercials deprives the advertiser of the eyeballs that he is paying for and such is stealing from the advertiser.
Well, there is another way to look at this, too. I'm already paying for the advertising to be sent in to me, along with regular programming, so the advertiser isn't losing a dime. The 'potential' sales due to being watched by so many eyeballs is what the advertiser is counting on. To me it seems the vast majority of commercials aired now appear to be targeting an intellectual audience composed of 3-year-olds, and tend to turn me off of buying a particular brand simply because I feel that purchasing a product with such inane advertising will only encourage the advertising agency to produce more. (I haven't eaten Subway in years) I would actually pay a premium for television or programming to be completely commercial-free, or rather, to not see commercials. I doubt that I'm the only one.
Dunno where exactly in Canada you happen to live, but the last time (Christmas) I was in London, Ontario, Computer Liquidators still had display models of various netbooks running Moblin(?) linux. I wasn't in the market for one, so I didn't look all that closely, but it sure wasn't Windows. Maybe they still do.