His explanation is not reasonable. His comparison makes no sense -- if you compare the entire entertainment industry to the entire energy industry (revenue, market cap, whatever), entertainment gets absolutely *dwarfed*. It does *not* bring in "far more capital". And as another poster here noted, the $490k fine was against Howard Stern as an individual.
Maybe people have just been screwed over by big companies too many times to give them their unquestioning loyalty. I think that that is a good thing. It wasn't too long ago that IBM was just another "big, evil corporation", and things could change again.
This is a situation where IBM's goals and the open source community's coincidentally meet, and nothing more. Yes, supporters of open source software should be happy about that and develop as productive a relationship with IBM as possible, but it doesn't mean we should turn our critical faculties off.
Just a note -- there's nothing particularly democratic about voting with your wallet. Democracies are based on the idea that every person (with the franchise, at least) has an equal say. Voting with your wallet gives more "votes" to people with more money.
I agree with your sentiment here that not buying HP printers is a good response to this particular situation, but don't pretend that it is really democratic.
Hmm. Interesting; I just tried that link on Konqueror, and got a new tab with nothing in it. Not as annoying as a full pop-up (and the ad itself failed to load), but still fairly annoying.
People with perfect pitch (the ability to correctly identify the name of a given pitch) often describe their ability as visualizing, in colour, the pitch they hear. There are some perfect pitch training techniques that teach by exploiting this; for example, it will get you to tape a colour on each key on a piano so that you begin to associate certain colours with certain sounds.
Basic solfege ear-training (do-re-mi stuff) often associates hand gestures with different scale degrees. I'm just guessing, really, but perhaps a lot of mnemonic devices utilize synaesthetic metaphors in some way or another.
They tried to create such a centralised system; one that would standardise and oversee other departments. It is called the "Department of Homeland Defense". Unfortunately, that department itself did very badly on this test.
Yes, that's the problem -- the jokes are being used to mask a very serious problem. There is a tacitly accepted culture of prisoner abuse in the US. I can't help but think that this encourages abuses like those seen at Abu Ghraib.
Well, it is going to happen to some extent anywhere, but the thing is that there seems to be a culture of tolerance and acceptance of it in the States. It's expected. I can never believe that rape is something that is just casually joked about in the US. Also, many states have severe overcrowding with understaffed and undertrained security. That certainly doesn't help.
Sure, absolutely, but you have to convince people that it's worth their money! I just think that the freedom (not free-beer) focused arguments of the FSF might go farther amongst non-coders than technical arguments. Even large companies should be able to (eventually) see the benefits in supporting -- in every sense of the word -- technologies that doesn't lock all of their information in closed formats.
Very insightful post. I just thought I'd share my perspective, as a non-coder who switched to GNU/Linux last summer (and hasn't looked back!). First, I need to say that it was the rhetoric of the free software movement, especially that of RMS, that persuaded me to switch -- *not* the open source movement. You're a lot more likely to convince a non-coder, I believe, by emphasizing the freedom aspects of it than by technical ones. RMS's right-to-read arguments are what got to me, and I think plenty of people would respond to it.
For example, I think that right now academics -- particularly those in the arts! -- could use more exposure to that type of argument. I began my grad studies in September, and I was really shocked by how dependent all of the profs were on MS file formats. These people don't like to hear that all of their research and papers might be inaccessible in 20 years -- or that if they are, they might have to give MS money just to read them.
Anyways, IMHO unfortunately the open source ideals seem to be getting most of the publicity right now, and I think that that argument, in the long run, isn't as powerful as the free software argument is.
The fact that usenet is so decentralised is my favourite thing about it. Webforums, for example, are entirely under the control of a single entity (whether an individual or a company), and the forum is at that individual's mercy. They can pull the plug (or get hacked, or exceed their bandwidth, or...) anytime. Try to take out a newsgroup, though! You'd have to find every jackass running a usenet server and whack the box with a baseball bat.
Preaching-to-the-choir syndrom is always going to be a problem when you're trying to promote a movement; however, it isn't fair to say that he preaches *only* to the choir. If that was true, how did free software *grow* from just him and his crazy ideas in the early 80s to the global force it is now?
Sorry for the pendantry -- I never do it -- but this is pet peeve of mine. I had to mark a bunch of undergrad papers about popular music recently, and almost nobody got it right.
Because, contrary to what Bush and Co. would have you believe, this is *not a political issue.* Or shouldn't be, at least.
Do you understand that? Global warming, largely driven by human actions, is a fact.
The problem, fundamentally, is that at some level the biometric data must be reduced to a bunch of 1s and 0s and transmitted between devices. That makes those 1s and 0s vulnerable to being copied and misused. It may take hacked hardware, sure -- but the problem that the information is *eternally tied to you personally* makes it very dangerous.
A real life example: a few months ago my debit card was duplicated. I never lost my card, but some store owner somewhere had a hacked machine that captured my card and PIN information. It wasn't a very big deal, because I was able to just get a new card with a new PIN. But if my debit card was tied to me through biometrics, my bank account would be compromised for the rest of my life.
[tinfoil hat]Maybe it's really a part of R&D. Maybe these experts are meant to trawl through forgotten code and whatnot with an eye towards implementing it in MS products and try to patent it themselves.[/tinfoil hat]
I'm curious too. What is their motivation here? Do they gain any sort of legal benefit out of being able to point to dedicated prior art researchers?
I mean, they're spending the money -- why?
This will probably be the first version of Windows where there is very little incentive to upgrade from the previous version for most of Microsoft's users.
IMHO, that honour falls to the Win2000 --> WinXP upgrade. You're right, though, that there may be even *less* incentive for XP --> Longhorn.
I agree that some people can take the "MS in decline!" mode way too far, but there is something there. Yes, they posted record profits this past quarter -- but that was accomplished mostly by slashing R&D costs. This gave them a short-term boost, but may bite them in the ass in the long run. It also shows that they needed to go to some lengths in order to maintain that bottom line.
I still agree with you, though -- some people here take things way too far. MS certainly isn't going to fall apart any time soon.
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His explanation is not reasonable. His comparison makes no sense -- if you compare the entire entertainment industry to the entire energy industry (revenue, market cap, whatever), entertainment gets absolutely *dwarfed*. It does *not* bring in "far more capital". And as another poster here noted, the $490k fine was against Howard Stern as an individual.
This is a situation where IBM's goals and the open source community's coincidentally meet, and nothing more. Yes, supporters of open source software should be happy about that and develop as productive a relationship with IBM as possible, but it doesn't mean we should turn our critical faculties off.
I agree with your sentiment here that not buying HP printers is a good response to this particular situation, but don't pretend that it is really democratic.
For all the talk I hear about "anti-Americanism", I hear a lot more genuinely anti-French, anti-German, anti-Canadian, etc comments from Americans.
Hmm. Interesting; I just tried that link on Konqueror, and got a new tab with nothing in it. Not as annoying as a full pop-up (and the ad itself failed to load), but still fairly annoying.
Basic solfege ear-training (do-re-mi stuff) often associates hand gestures with different scale degrees. I'm just guessing, really, but perhaps a lot of mnemonic devices utilize synaesthetic metaphors in some way or another.
I agree; but if you keep your eyes peeled, there is definitely a pattern of people with free ipod links getting randomly modded as trolls.
I'd bet that the reason the GP was marked as troll was because of the free ipod offer in his sig. Some people really, really, *really* hate that.
Oh man, that was so funny because it's *true*. Kinda funny, kinda sad.
They tried to create such a centralised system; one that would standardise and oversee other departments. It is called the "Department of Homeland Defense". Unfortunately, that department itself did very badly on this test.
Yes, that's the problem -- the jokes are being used to mask a very serious problem. There is a tacitly accepted culture of prisoner abuse in the US. I can't help but think that this encourages abuses like those seen at Abu Ghraib.
Well, it is going to happen to some extent anywhere, but the thing is that there seems to be a culture of tolerance and acceptance of it in the States. It's expected. I can never believe that rape is something that is just casually joked about in the US. Also, many states have severe overcrowding with understaffed and undertrained security. That certainly doesn't help.
Sure, absolutely, but you have to convince people that it's worth their money! I just think that the freedom (not free-beer) focused arguments of the FSF might go farther amongst non-coders than technical arguments. Even large companies should be able to (eventually) see the benefits in supporting -- in every sense of the word -- technologies that doesn't lock all of their information in closed formats.
For example, I think that right now academics -- particularly those in the arts! -- could use more exposure to that type of argument. I began my grad studies in September, and I was really shocked by how dependent all of the profs were on MS file formats. These people don't like to hear that all of their research and papers might be inaccessible in 20 years -- or that if they are, they might have to give MS money just to read them.
Anyways, IMHO unfortunately the open source ideals seem to be getting most of the publicity right now, and I think that that argument, in the long run, isn't as powerful as the free software argument is.
Hope you don't mind the ramblings.
The fact that usenet is so decentralised is my favourite thing about it. Webforums, for example, are entirely under the control of a single entity (whether an individual or a company), and the forum is at that individual's mercy. They can pull the plug (or get hacked, or exceed their bandwidth, or...) anytime. Try to take out a newsgroup, though! You'd have to find every jackass running a usenet server and whack the box with a baseball bat.
Preaching-to-the-choir syndrom is always going to be a problem when you're trying to promote a movement; however, it isn't fair to say that he preaches *only* to the choir. If that was true, how did free software *grow* from just him and his crazy ideas in the early 80s to the global force it is now?
Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Sorry for the pendantry -- I never do it -- but this is pet peeve of mine. I had to mark a bunch of undergrad papers about popular music recently, and almost nobody got it right.
Because, contrary to what Bush and Co. would have you believe, this is *not a political issue.* Or shouldn't be, at least. Do you understand that? Global warming, largely driven by human actions, is a fact.
A real life example: a few months ago my debit card was duplicated. I never lost my card, but some store owner somewhere had a hacked machine that captured my card and PIN information. It wasn't a very big deal, because I was able to just get a new card with a new PIN. But if my debit card was tied to me through biometrics, my bank account would be compromised for the rest of my life.
[tinfoil hat]Maybe it's really a part of R&D. Maybe these experts are meant to trawl through forgotten code and whatnot with an eye towards implementing it in MS products and try to patent it themselves.[/tinfoil hat]
I'm curious too. What is their motivation here? Do they gain any sort of legal benefit out of being able to point to dedicated prior art researchers? I mean, they're spending the money -- why?
You don't think this sort of blatant attack on scientific freedom in the name of politics is important to nerds? How do you define "nerd"???
IMHO, that honour falls to the Win2000 --> WinXP upgrade. You're right, though, that there may be even *less* incentive for XP --> Longhorn.
I agree that some people can take the "MS in decline!" mode way too far, but there is something there. Yes, they posted record profits this past quarter -- but that was accomplished mostly by slashing R&D costs. This gave them a short-term boost, but may bite them in the ass in the long run. It also shows that they needed to go to some lengths in order to maintain that bottom line. I still agree with you, though -- some people here take things way too far. MS certainly isn't going to fall apart any time soon.