*engage rant mode* ... Well, it was a nice try.:^) Seriously, the chant "Kill Clippy!" is one I find myself uttering alot. If there's one thing MS has cursed us with, it's technology that thinks it knows more than you do. This is why it [Windows] always asks "are you sure you want to do this?".. as if... DUH! OF COURSE! Clippy is the embodiment of evil... it thinks it's a sentient being trying to be helpful.. when infact it's so useless it makes those "programmable" microwaves look like mini-einsteins!
At the risk of offending a great many slashdot readers, I believe Mr. Gates appears to think alot like Linus, modulo the coding background and some other bits. He doesn't see any competition. Neither does Linus (for different reasons! *g*). He views his OS as a tool... and as such with both limitations and advantages. Linus too recognizes the pros and cons of linux. The "My-OS-is-better-than-your-OS" mentality usually comes from less-educated computer users. NT may be buggy, but it has it's uses - and no OS is unilaterally better than another. We might dispute the Mindcraft results, but we can't ignore them.
Whether Mr. Gates is responsible for the proliferation of the PC is undisputed... but I have a bone to pick with the contention that he allowed the internet to go where it has. For one, Al Gore claimed that first, and for two the internet came about on UN*X mainframes in an academic setting - and had nothing to do with PCs. I don't think "e-commerce" would be around without the PC, but that wasn't the reason the internet was invented, contrary to commercial dogma. The reason it was invented was primarily so professors and such could exchange ideas and papers and such between each other.
Of course, I might be wrong.. so read the comments attached to this post as well!:^)
Soon we'll have contests between people "oh yeah, well MY city has the most people working for hi tech companies". "That's small potatoes, MY city has over a dozen chip manufacturing plants!" "Oh yeah, well *I* have 32 computers in my basement, and MY city wants to give me financial aid because that's not enough!"
So what? The reason they're probably the most wired is because that's where all my taxes go at the end of the year!!!
I think my basement is more wired than 90% of the slashdot readership - but I'm not going to go out of my way to highlight this fact. The main reason being if anybody ever came downstairs, they'd instantly notice I probably have more old chinese containers, wrappers, empty pop cans, and cardboard pizza thingies than most of the slashdot readership! Washington DC may be the most wired, but I wouldn't want to live there for atleast two reasons - a) ever look BEHIND the whitehouse? An expansive ghetto stretching for miles and miles. It was a stagnant cesspool some 200 years ago and very little has changed. The second reason is there's nobody to have a good conversation with down there. I mean with all those politicians, all you'd get when you asked them what they did was "National security, can't tell you." or "Well, I believe in the American Way and blah blah blah... blah blah.. next question!"
And this is the problem with slashdot-style news. You get it before everybody else... practically as soon as it hits the wire (and sometimes even before!). The disadvantage is that sometimes not enough research is done (whether by/. or other news organizations) when you're riding the cutting edge like this.
It's pretty much expected that readers of/. know that this can be the case, and as such are left to themselves to determine what is fact, and what is fiction or speculation.
Perhaps it's because Linux people push their machines alot harder than the average Joe, exasperating the bugs in the OS?
Now, the only time I've ever *looked* at a windows box and had it BSOD was when it was running the 'Flying Windows' screensaver.:^)
It's a logical fallacy to assume that simply because another person never has problems with said product YOU will not have problems with said product. It's like if I took my brother's truck up to the store and drove it back without having any problems. Now he goes out and drives it to work. The engine explodes. But it worked fine for me, so this can't happen! Or not. Different variables - for one he was on the freeway. I wasn't. For two he drives alot faster than me. And for three, somebody left the oil cap off from last week, and since I didn't get the engine hot enough to blow all that out of the engine on my short run to the store, nothing happened... but once drove it, it ran out of oil, and the engine seized up.
"Assumption is the mother of all f-ck ups" -- Bruce Willis, Diehard 3.
Apple support rep: They're here! No wait... They're not! Oh, updated info - They're back! No, wait... management says... damn, they're gone again. Oooh! They're back according to manufacturing. WAIT! hold the presses inventory says we're short! No... Marketing says...
FYI, I am a programmer (of sorts *g*). While I respect the right of people to release their software under restrictive licensing, I'm not going to support that choice. It produces an unnecessary duplication of effort, for one. Let me give you an example - if the blueprints of every skyscraper built were kept secret, you'd have no way of suggesting to the engineer(s) ways of improving it. You'd also be unable to determine that they only used half the parts they should have to built it - and that as a result it could literally fall apart! What's worse, you couldn't easily tell what works and what didn't.. so you may need to build several skyscrapers before you find one that stands upright. Software is the same way - if you keep the blueprints secret everybody suffers. What's worse, the effort you put into creating the program (or building!) don't work to advance the state of the art.
Imagine if you couldn't build your house without paying somebody else because they already patented the idea. Now you see why I despise proprietary software so much - it restricts my ability to further the state of the art.
This is what I mean when I talk about a moral imperative - because that is the result that has, and will continue to, happen until we make a conscious effort to stop it.
let's face it, the existance of rather spotty quality free/shareware has tarnished the origins of GNU/OpenSource..
Maybe so. but it's a twisted double standard that has people comparing w2k to linux 1.2. You should judge software on the basis of it's latest release.. not previous mistakes. And you shouldn't compare Real Software with Vaporware (ie: comparing linux 2.2 to w2k). If you'd like to see an example of this, flip over to ZDNet and look up whatever Berst Alert is up on the page right now.
It is a logical error at best, and FUD at worst to misrepresent things like that. The current crop of gnu software is solid and dependable. Some of it is also cryptic - but that's a gripe you can take up with the UN*X Philosophy in general, not just rms and his merry men.
I have mixed feelings about this review. On one hand any chance to meet talented fellow hackers is a Good Thing.. even if you can't talk about what you did for 5 years. And even if the code they sat down to write that fine afternoon is never used.. the experience and contact(s) gained may likely spill over into a joint-effort between the two at some future date. Maybe even a free software release. But on the other I keep hearing echos of the gpl in my ear telling me that it's a moral imperative to not support proprietary software.. and a waste of one's effort to do so anyway.
I guess my unanswered question is - should you have fun even if the people you associate with would disapprove of it? For me, the answer would normally be yes. But the moral dilemma found with the free software / open source philosophies leave me with a bad taste in my mouth.
Hasn't anybody told Microsoft yet that Linux itself is a myth? It really doesn't exist.. we're just trying to get your goat. I mean... system uptime measured in years? High performance out of desktop computers? You'd have to be pretty gullible to believe all that. And to top it off, an operating system that doubles in functionality while increasing it's speed by a similar amount at every major release? Absolutely unbelieveable! Programmers who devote their free time to giving away their code? I can barely contain myself.. I really must go...
Let me first appologize for all the stupid posts that are going to (and have been) be submitted. There's a good reason why stuff like this ought not to be submitted to slashdot - there's nothing to add to the conversation, and nothing useful will result from a half-million geeks knowing somebody's house burned down. I'm sure the inane e-mail you're going to receive will only add to the problem.:(
People, please leave the residents of the geek compound alone for awhile. half their house just burned down! And don't complain if in the next few days submissions get processed alittle slower.
YOU BASTARD! Can't you stop for just a minute with the #$@! first posts?! Somebody's house just burned down, and you're posting first posts?! You heartless bastard!
I don't know. Obviously he makes some solid contributions that are right in line with most charities - for this I commend him. By the same token I despise him for simultaniously using the organization as a cover to promote MS products in a way that the DOJ wouldn't want to touch for fear of incurring bad publicity.
Factoring this in, how can you tell whether he's genuinely interested in helping improve people's lives.. or his own bottom line? Given Mr. Gates' previous history, I tend to take the most pessimistic view possible in this matter.. to the detriment of my karma score it would seem.:) Without all the financial data, neither of us can claim that we're right.
Sun is neither an enemy of the movement, nor a friend. They're a business - specifically they're in the business of making money. They will say and do whatever gets them the most cash, and don't kid yourselves - the only reason vendors are "embracing" open source is because it's a new market and it's a big one.
Incase you haven't noticed, Sun seems to have scheduled releases - ie, they aren't making everything "open source" at once - they're doing it in pieces to get the maximum amount of press. And if you read their licensing, it seems that they are still hesitant to 'let go' of it once and for all and go free software. They need that control so that if open source falters or something, they can pull everything back without much loss.
It's not that Sun's evil... they're certainly making contributions. It's just that the SCL makes sure those contributions aren't that useful to the rest of us. Keep it in perspective though - better the SCL than a Microsoft Artistic License (shudder).
Sigh. The moderators this week must have unplugged their brains before logging in this morning. MS charity practices (education, specifically) have been exposed as an attempt to push people towards MS solutions and away from competing products. Case in point - the MIT "grant" that bill gates gave to let them setup a new building. The catch (and maybe you read about this?) was that all the stations had to run NT.
So don't go pouting about how I'm beating up on "poor mr. gates and his save-the-children charity" - because he ain't poor and he ain't out saving children.
All I gotta say is if when I click this link, I don't see that Jar Jar has died, I'm writing SW:JJD (SW: Jar Jar Dies) and releasing it on videocassette for $9.95 plus s&h.
MS Legal didn't ask MS Marketing about this one. Yeesh, what a stupid idea - not only will it fail to achieve the desired effect, but the resulting whirlwind of press surrounding the issue will a) distance politicians who might otherwise be sympathetic, b) create alot of bad press for M$, and c) most importantly, provide humor-deprived geeks around the world a reason to forward the story across the globe... which will cause d) the network to become overloaded due to all the forwarding going on, annoying e) the pr0n downloaders who will retaliate by winnuking everybody on their segment which will be picked up by f) MTV, who will claim they're the greatest hacker ever!
Move over IBM, this is the next generation storage technology. Coupling a few dozen nanobots to lay out 101101011010101001011010 onto a surface and then using some kind of modified electron microscope would certainly have storage densities in the terabyte/inch range. And we already have an encoding scheme for it (CDROM-style)!
It it just me, or does it seem to you like Rob posts related articles like this just to see if we'd see the relationship?:^)
Microsoft Charity, n.: 1. To devour whole, to succumb to, to be assimilated into a larger collective by subversive means. 2. A foundation in Redmond, WA. Example: "My college has been given some MS Charity and now the Registration office is just a sign that says'This is Where You Will Go Today'!" See Also: Windoze, Bill Gates, FOAD.
Assuming time doesn't exist, why is it that I always get to work late? Is it that I'm already at work and exist at home simultaniously (and thus I really am not late)? If so, they're not paying me enough!!
Slashdot Mirror
*engage rant mode* :^) Seriously, the chant "Kill Clippy!" is one I find myself uttering alot. If there's one thing MS has cursed us with, it's technology that thinks it knows more than you do. This is why it [Windows] always asks "are you sure you want to do this?" .. as if... DUH! OF COURSE! Clippy is the embodiment of evil... it thinks it's a sentient being trying to be helpful.. when infact it's so useless it makes those "programmable" microwaves look like mini-einsteins!
... Well, it was a nice try.
*disengage rant mode*
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Yeah, but I'm left to wonder what other "brinks" he has brought us to as well... the brink of insanity perhaps?
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Whether Mr. Gates is responsible for the proliferation of the PC is undisputed... but I have a bone to pick with the contention that he allowed the internet to go where it has. For one, Al Gore claimed that first, and for two the internet came about on UN*X mainframes in an academic setting - and had nothing to do with PCs. I don't think "e-commerce" would be around without the PC, but that wasn't the reason the internet was invented, contrary to commercial dogma. The reason it was invented was primarily so professors and such could exchange ideas and papers and such between each other.
Of course, I might be wrong.. so read the comments attached to this post as well! :^)
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So what? The reason they're probably the most wired is because that's where all my taxes go at the end of the year!!!
I think my basement is more wired than 90% of the slashdot readership - but I'm not going to go out of my way to highlight this fact. The main reason being if anybody ever came downstairs, they'd instantly notice I probably have more old chinese containers, wrappers, empty pop cans, and cardboard pizza thingies than most of the slashdot readership! Washington DC may be the most wired, but I wouldn't want to live there for atleast two reasons - a) ever look BEHIND the whitehouse? An expansive ghetto stretching for miles and miles. It was a stagnant cesspool some 200 years ago and very little has changed. The second reason is there's nobody to have a good conversation with down there. I mean with all those politicians, all you'd get when you asked them what they did was "National security, can't tell you." or "Well, I believe in the American Way and blah blah blah... blah blah.. next question!"
Sigh. Give me good 'ol Minneapolis any day.
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It's pretty much expected that readers of /. know that this can be the case, and as such are left to themselves to determine what is fact, and what is fiction or speculation.
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Now, the only time I've ever *looked* at a windows box and had it BSOD was when it was running the 'Flying Windows' screensaver. :^)
It's a logical fallacy to assume that simply because another person never has problems with said product YOU will not have problems with said product. It's like if I took my brother's truck up to the store and drove it back without having any problems. Now he goes out and drives it to work. The engine explodes. But it worked fine for me, so this can't happen! Or not. Different variables - for one he was on the freeway. I wasn't. For two he drives alot faster than me. And for three, somebody left the oil cap off from last week, and since I didn't get the engine hot enough to blow all that out of the engine on my short run to the store, nothing happened... but once drove it, it ran out of oil, and the engine seized up.
"Assumption is the mother of all f-ck ups" -- Bruce Willis, Diehard 3.
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Well, they would have, but Microsoft sued them for distributing vaporware without a license...
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Apple support rep: They're here! No wait... They're not! Oh, updated info - They're back! No, wait... management says... damn, they're gone again. Oooh! They're back according to manufacturing. WAIT! hold the presses inventory says we're short! No... Marketing says...
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Rob, please - don't sing! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T DO IT! YOU'RE TOO YOUNG!!!!!!
=)
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Imagine if you couldn't build your house without paying somebody else because they already patented the idea. Now you see why I despise proprietary software so much - it restricts my ability to further the state of the art.
This is what I mean when I talk about a moral imperative - because that is the result that has, and will continue to, happen until we make a conscious effort to stop it.
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Maybe so. but it's a twisted double standard that has people comparing w2k to linux 1.2. You should judge software on the basis of it's latest release.. not previous mistakes. And you shouldn't compare Real Software with Vaporware (ie: comparing linux 2.2 to w2k). If you'd like to see an example of this, flip over to ZDNet and look up whatever Berst Alert is up on the page right now.
It is a logical error at best, and FUD at worst to misrepresent things like that. The current crop of gnu software is solid and dependable. Some of it is also cryptic - but that's a gripe you can take up with the UN*X Philosophy in general, not just rms and his merry men.
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I guess my unanswered question is - should you have fun even if the people you associate with would disapprove of it? For me, the answer would normally be yes. But the moral dilemma found with the free software / open source philosophies leave me with a bad taste in my mouth.
--
Hasn't anybody told Microsoft yet that Linux itself is a myth? It really doesn't exist.. we're just trying to get your goat. I mean... system uptime measured in years? High performance out of desktop computers? You'd have to be pretty gullible to believe all that. And to top it off, an operating system that doubles in functionality while increasing it's speed by a similar amount at every major release? Absolutely unbelieveable! Programmers who devote their free time to giving away their code? I can barely contain myself.. I really must go...
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People, please leave the residents of the geek compound alone for awhile. half their house just burned down! And don't complain if in the next few days submissions get processed alittle slower.
--
YOU BASTARD! Can't you stop for just a minute with the #$@! first posts?! Somebody's house just burned down, and you're posting first posts?! You heartless bastard!
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Factoring this in, how can you tell whether he's genuinely interested in helping improve people's lives.. or his own bottom line? Given Mr. Gates' previous history, I tend to take the most pessimistic view possible in this matter.. to the detriment of my karma score it would seem. :) Without all the financial data, neither of us can claim that we're right.
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Incase you haven't noticed, Sun seems to have scheduled releases - ie, they aren't making everything "open source" at once - they're doing it in pieces to get the maximum amount of press. And if you read their licensing, it seems that they are still hesitant to 'let go' of it once and for all and go free software. They need that control so that if open source falters or something, they can pull everything back without much loss.
It's not that Sun's evil... they're certainly making contributions. It's just that the SCL makes sure those contributions aren't that useful to the rest of us. Keep it in perspective though - better the SCL than a Microsoft Artistic License (shudder).
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So don't go pouting about how I'm beating up on "poor mr. gates and his save-the-children charity" - because he ain't poor and he ain't out saving children.
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All I gotta say is if when I click this link, I don't see that Jar Jar has died, I'm writing SW:JJD (SW: Jar Jar Dies) and releasing it on videocassette for $9.95 plus s&h.
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Probably not the chain reaction they wanted.
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It it just me, or does it seem to you like Rob posts related articles like this just to see if we'd see the relationship? :^)
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Microsoft Charity, n.: 1. To devour whole, to succumb to, to be assimilated into a larger collective by subversive means. 2. A foundation in Redmond, WA. Example: "My college has been given some MS Charity and now the Registration office is just a sign that says'This is Where You Will Go Today'!" See Also: Windoze, Bill Gates, FOAD.
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195? - ENIAC invented.
1967 - while under the influence of illicit drugs, some college kids get together and create UNIX.
197? - Apple creates the first PC.
1980 - some nerd-boy founds a company out in Redmond WA - begins selling crummy OSs to the world.
1985 - aforementioned crummy OSs have taken over the world.
1991 - The aforementioned college kids finally sober up and release Linux.
1999 - Aforementioned company goes nuts as Linux (UNIX!) starts taking back it's fair share.
2003 - Microsoft collapses. Sadly, nobody cares.
2008 - Aforementioned college kids go out and get drunk again.. linux falters.
2009 - *BSD guys take over the world.
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Assuming time doesn't exist, why is it that I always get to work late? Is it that I'm already at work and exist at home simultaniously (and thus I really am not late)? If so, they're not paying me enough!!
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