Once the RIAA and others SPELLED OUT to me that the music that has been the soundtrack of my life for the past 48 years is THEIRS I decided to let them have it.
I don't buy music anymore unless it is open and free. The RIAA and others can keep their product. It's theirs, not mine. I don't want it.
I have been using Xandros as my main Linux OS for several years now. I just upgraded two systems to Xandros 4.1 Pro this week and I am very pleased.
The "niche" for this distro is: Anyone who wants to install Linux in 20 minutes and have everything running pretty much out of the box. X 4.1 Pro has kernel 2.6.18 which is just what I needed to get to brand new SONY DSC-HS5 digital camera to work flawlessly with Linux. My DVD-RW works fine out of the box. My NVidia video card has full 3D function and TV-out operational right from the install. My scanner (Epson Perfection 1670) only needed the firmware file location entered into the config file. Yes, you do have to install libdvdcss2 in order to see store-bought DVDs.
Xandros File Manager makes sharing / accessing Windows or NFS shares trivially easy.
Xandros is for people who have spent more than enough late nights trying to make stuff go.....It just works. I still play with other distros - including all the majors - but they simply serve to prove to me how easy and simple it is to just use Xandros and save a LOAD of time.
The only issue I had with the install of Xandros 4.1 Pro was that it installs the SMP kernel by default.....while the driver for my old rt2400-based wireless card doesn't do SMP....which resulted in a system hang soon after the netowrk was configured and enabled. I re-installed and then used the supplied package CD to install the uni kernel....and THEN enabled the network. Worked fine. No further issues of any sort.
You guys still don't get it. Guns won't fix this problem. They only provide an excuse for MORE repressive laws and MORE removal of civil rights.
You need to organize and democractize. Sounds like union talk? That's becasue unions worked out almost a century ago how to deal with unaccountable power.
Guns ain't it.
Comedy Central isn't available in any form in my country. I was watching clips of these shows on YouTube until I realised the whole thing is on Bittorrent anyway. Now I watch them on the PC usually within 12 hours of the US broadcast. Content providers have a dilemma. If they restrict access, they loose impact. Look at how paul Krugman and other columnists effectively disappeared from Internet discourse after the NY Times paved them over with subscription-only access. The revolution will not be televised.
In recent weeks I've seen a growing amount of spam with subjects that appear to be constructed with my interests in mind. At first I dismissed them, but there are now so many I am beginning to wonder if the spammers haven't been monitoring my e-mail or browsing history to help them construct subjects they know I'm more likely to notice / read.
These companies effectively monopolise popular culture, yet refuse to allow or accept that the culture they create can be shared by the hundreds of millions who partake of that culture (and who - in real terms - have little choice in the matter).
If the RIAA, MPAA and their media partners are going to attempt to monopolize popular culture, they will have to accept that the people who buy into it are going to reject the idea they are cash-paying users of something they may feel in their bones IS them and defines them.
The law may make all these people criminals, but the law will merely be proven to be an ass.
The bottom line is a very simple one: culture is shared - not owned.
That the law attempts to ignore this merely demonstrates the law is an ass.
Money? Make money performing.....like people have for thousands of years. If you write a song or make a movie and the public embrace it, internalise it and honor you by doing so, then do them the courtesy of understanding you have been an important part of creating culture......not property.
Reality threatens faith (believe without proof or evidence).
"Godless" was one of the few things the Communists in China and the Soviet Union got right.
I used to use Red Hat, too....at home (server / desktops) and at work (desktop). But the advent of Fedora Core and the ongoing hassles with sound and video and network cards caused to look to other distros. I now use Xandros (3.0 Deluxe, then upgraded to 4.0 Home Premium) Linux as my main desktop OS, Ubuntu as the 'rescue' install on each system "just in case" and Clark Connect Home on the mail / web / proxy server.
I'm happy and life is easy and this stuff just works. There is now no compelling event to make me look again at Red Hat....and I pay money for Xandros. It's well worth it.
Bush can't be voted out....He's in his second term and can't run again.
The people who voted for him certainly hate democracy, freedom and the united States of America. The man has done more harm to the republic and ignored the Constitution more than any previous president - ever.
His party is complicit in these crimes.....
Maybe one day America will be a real democracy......but not today and not soon. Not until they fix the situation that see more than 98% of House congressional incumbents re-elected each two years - many without an opponent - thanks to the gerrymandering of district boundaries.
It still exists today in the form of "Xandros Desktop Linux"...which for my money is the best Linux desktop distro available today.
Yes, better than Ubuntu.
I haven't used SuSE / Novell Linux lately as I have never had a succesful install of that distro - and I've tried all major versions from 6.2 through to 9.0. Maybe just bad luck, but that has been my luck to date. By comparison - on the same hardware - Xandros 3.0 installs and runs flawlessly.
One should not be confused about America. It's an awesome country full of millions of amazing, clever, talented people.
That explains all that is good - like the subject at hand.
Unfortunately, America is currently being run by a class of lying, corrupt, dishonest, essentially murderous, crooks.....headed by one G W Bush.
This eplains much that is bad - even lethal.
Americans have difficulty changing this situation because:
1. Their highly concentrated (in ownership terms) media support Bush for their own profit, seeking laws that will allow them to further concentrate their control - and enhance their profits.
2. Democracy in the United States hasn't been corrupt and dysfunctional for many, many years. The first past the post voting system in the House and Senate, combined with profound gerrymandering of district boundaries in the House, have resulted in a situation where more than 98% of incumbents to the House are returned each two years. Call it what you like, but that ain't democracy.
So big problems remain unfixed and new ones are created by the corrupt ruling class in their myopic pursuit of short term profit at the expense of the long term health of themselves,their customers....and their nation....and the failure of democracy means virtually all accountability has been snuffed out.
America is going to continue to stubble and decline while it remains in the grip of the the crooks. But even an America in decline is impressive.....and to be admired for what it still manages to acheive despite the draining effect the Republican parasites sucking the life and energy out of the United States, sacrificing its children and treasure in the pursuit of the theft of the oil of others.....for profit.
I used to work for AT&T.......but after Bush lied to justify invading Iraq and AT&T donated money to his election campaign, I quit my job. No way was I going to work for people to use my labour to generate money for a President who lied to justify invading Iraq and directly caused the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people - Iraqi and American.
Corporations have no conscience......but real people do. Don't support corporations that give money to crooks, liars and killers.
What say makes a lot of sense.
My argument in favour of PR in particular is allow for real, effective choice.
Only having two parties who aren't much different leaves most people out of the loop.....and over time only serves to alienate people from the institution that is supposed to be their own.
A war on dishonest politics and politicians would be more accurate.
Politics is necessary and good. Dishonesty is neither.
If the US were to move to a proportional voting system for electing the US House of Representatives, the lock the (arguably corrupt and unaccountable) Democrats and Republicans have on that sad chamber would be broken......and voters would have real choice.
How many Americans know that every two years more than 98% of incumbents are re-elected......thanks to the often profound gerrymandering of district boundaries by state legislatures? This has been going on for a VERY long time.....with the incumbency rate being over 90% since 1954 (except for "only" 88% in 1964). The past 5 House elections have all been over 98% and two of those have been over 99%. Once in the House, it is almost impossible to lose your seat.
This extreme level of "incumbency" in a multi-party democracy is a large part of what the "problem" is in America.....and all the consequent problems that flow fomr it won't be fixed until this fundamental structural failing of the US system is addressed in a way that actually fixes it.
A move to proportional representation would eliminate gerrymandering and make the House truly representative of American voters in a way that it isn't and hasn't been for many, many years.
No point buying a system from a vendor that doesn't support you.
I'll either carry on making my own systems - as I have for the past 15 years for my desktops - or I'll buy a laptop from a vendor who does support Linux.
Pirate Bay no more INTENDED to faciliate crime than an Interstate Highway is intended to provide a getaway route for bank robbers.
That they CAN be used that way is up to the user.......or highway builders would all be de facto accessories to every crime aided or committed by the existence of highways.
In my experience over the past 20 years, auctioning spectrum typically results in expensive spectrum you can't afford to actually use because the purchaser paid too much for it and the consequence pricing is prohibitive.
Maybe a lottery....but please.....no more auctions.
Having tried all the distros you mentioned, from the perspective of "just use it", Xandros is better than the distros you mention....
My 70yo mother uses Xandros 3.0 daily with little muss nor fuss for all her needs - e-mail, browsing, word processing.
The lack of preconceptions is a key consideration in making a tranistion to Linux. She likes the lack of pop-ups and the viruses and says it just feels good.
Your narrow focus on bits and bytes appears intended to ignore the very important change in use from purely governmental / academic to open and ready for business as well.
You can ignore it if you like.
But I won't join you in doing so. The Internet of today isn't the environment it was before Gore's law was passed.
Gore did enable the Internet of today - encompassing in that term not just the OSI layers but also the way we use them.
YOu can define it your way - and that's OK. But it's not a definition I agree with or accept.
He DID create it as it is today - an open, public network.
If he claimed anywhere to have invented the technology, I haven't heard that. But his claim - as a legislator - to have created 'the Internet' is valid in that context.
Correct.
I remember in 1988 when Gore was championing the opening up of the Internet for public use......when most people had no idea it even existed. He DID sponsor the bill the made the Internet what it is today.....
All credit to him....and all crud dumped on the folks who have tried to misrepresent what he did.
Slashdot Mirror
Once the RIAA and others SPELLED OUT to me that the music that has been the soundtrack of my life for the past 48 years is THEIRS I decided to let them have it. I don't buy music anymore unless it is open and free. The RIAA and others can keep their product. It's theirs, not mine. I don't want it.
I have been using Xandros as my main Linux OS for several years now. I just upgraded two systems to Xandros 4.1 Pro this week and I am very pleased.
The "niche" for this distro is: Anyone who wants to install Linux in 20 minutes and have everything running pretty much out of the box. X 4.1 Pro has kernel 2.6.18 which is just what I needed to get to brand new SONY DSC-HS5 digital camera to work flawlessly with Linux. My DVD-RW works fine out of the box. My NVidia video card has full 3D function and TV-out operational right from the install. My scanner (Epson Perfection 1670) only needed the firmware file location entered into the config file. Yes, you do have to install libdvdcss2 in order to see store-bought DVDs.
Xandros File Manager makes sharing / accessing Windows or NFS shares trivially easy.
Xandros is for people who have spent more than enough late nights trying to make stuff go.....It just works. I still play with other distros - including all the majors - but they simply serve to prove to me how easy and simple it is to just use Xandros and save a LOAD of time.
The only issue I had with the install of Xandros 4.1 Pro was that it installs the SMP kernel by default.....while the driver for my old rt2400-based wireless card doesn't do SMP....which resulted in a system hang soon after the netowrk was configured and enabled. I re-installed and then used the supplied package CD to install the uni kernel....and THEN enabled the network. Worked fine. No further issues of any sort.
I'm channelling Hoffa......at least the part of him that wasn't a crook and was a defender of workers. :-)
You guys still don't get it. Guns won't fix this problem. They only provide an excuse for MORE repressive laws and MORE removal of civil rights. You need to organize and democractize. Sounds like union talk? That's becasue unions worked out almost a century ago how to deal with unaccountable power. Guns ain't it.
Comedy Central isn't available in any form in my country. I was watching clips of these shows on YouTube until I realised the whole thing is on Bittorrent anyway. Now I watch them on the PC usually within 12 hours of the US broadcast. Content providers have a dilemma. If they restrict access, they loose impact. Look at how paul Krugman and other columnists effectively disappeared from Internet discourse after the NY Times paved them over with subscription-only access. The revolution will not be televised.
In recent weeks I've seen a growing amount of spam with subjects that appear to be constructed with my interests in mind. At first I dismissed them, but there are now so many I am beginning to wonder if the spammers haven't been monitoring my e-mail or browsing history to help them construct subjects they know I'm more likely to notice / read.
Nothing here for free people.
US copyright - at 75 years - is stupid.
These companies effectively monopolise popular culture, yet refuse to allow or accept that the culture they create can be shared by the hundreds of millions who partake of that culture (and who - in real terms - have little choice in the matter).
If the RIAA, MPAA and their media partners are going to attempt to monopolize popular culture, they will have to accept that the people who buy into it are going to reject the idea they are cash-paying users of something they may feel in their bones IS them and defines them.
The law may make all these people criminals, but the law will merely be proven to be an ass.
The bottom line is a very simple one: culture is shared - not owned.
That the law attempts to ignore this merely demonstrates the law is an ass.
Money? Make money performing.....like people have for thousands of years. If you write a song or make a movie and the public embrace it, internalise it and honor you by doing so, then do them the courtesy of understanding you have been an important part of creating culture......not property.
Now we know why they had this alert. Like the movie theatres kicking you out for bringing your own chocolate bars.
Reality threatens faith (believe without proof or evidence). "Godless" was one of the few things the Communists in China and the Soviet Union got right.
I used to use Red Hat, too....at home (server / desktops) and at work (desktop). But the advent of Fedora Core and the ongoing hassles with sound and video and network cards caused to look to other distros. I now use Xandros (3.0 Deluxe, then upgraded to 4.0 Home Premium) Linux as my main desktop OS, Ubuntu as the 'rescue' install on each system "just in case" and Clark Connect Home on the mail / web / proxy server.
I'm happy and life is easy and this stuff just works. There is now no compelling event to make me look again at Red Hat....and I pay money for Xandros. It's well worth it.
Bush can't be voted out....He's in his second term and can't run again.
The people who voted for him certainly hate democracy, freedom and the united States of America. The man has done more harm to the republic and ignored the Constitution more than any previous president - ever.
His party is complicit in these crimes.....
Maybe one day America will be a real democracy......but not today and not soon. Not until they fix the situation that see more than 98% of House congressional incumbents re-elected each two years - many without an opponent - thanks to the gerrymandering of district boundaries.
Yes....and it was pretty good at the time.
It still exists today in the form of "Xandros Desktop Linux"...which for my money is the best Linux desktop distro available today.
Yes, better than Ubuntu.
I haven't used SuSE / Novell Linux lately as I have never had a succesful install of that distro - and I've tried all major versions from 6.2 through to 9.0. Maybe just bad luck, but that has been my luck to date. By comparison - on the same hardware - Xandros 3.0 installs and runs flawlessly.
Xandros 4.0 just came out a week or so ago.
One should not be confused about America. It's an awesome country full of millions of amazing, clever, talented people.
That explains all that is good - like the subject at hand.
Unfortunately, America is currently being run by a class of lying, corrupt, dishonest, essentially murderous, crooks.....headed by one G W Bush.
This eplains much that is bad - even lethal.
Americans have difficulty changing this situation because:
1. Their highly concentrated (in ownership terms) media support Bush for their own profit, seeking laws that will allow them to further concentrate their control - and enhance their profits.
2. Democracy in the United States hasn't been corrupt and dysfunctional for many, many years. The first past the post voting system in the House and Senate, combined with profound gerrymandering of district boundaries in the House, have resulted in a situation where more than 98% of incumbents to the House are returned each two years. Call it what you like, but that ain't democracy.
So big problems remain unfixed and new ones are created by the corrupt ruling class in their myopic pursuit of short term profit at the expense of the long term health of themselves,their customers....and their nation....and the failure of democracy means virtually all accountability has been snuffed out.
America is going to continue to stubble and decline while it remains in the grip of the the crooks. But even an America in decline is impressive.....and to be admired for what it still manages to acheive despite the draining effect the Republican parasites sucking the life and energy out of the United States, sacrificing its children and treasure in the pursuit of the theft of the oil of others.....for profit.
I used to work for AT&T.......but after Bush lied to justify invading Iraq and AT&T donated money to his election campaign, I quit my job. No way was I going to work for people to use my labour to generate money for a President who lied to justify invading Iraq and directly caused the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people - Iraqi and American.
Corporations have no conscience......but real people do. Don't support corporations that give money to crooks, liars and killers.
What say makes a lot of sense. My argument in favour of PR in particular is allow for real, effective choice. Only having two parties who aren't much different leaves most people out of the loop.....and over time only serves to alienate people from the institution that is supposed to be their own.
A war on dishonest politics and politicians would be more accurate.
Politics is necessary and good. Dishonesty is neither.
If the US were to move to a proportional voting system for electing the US House of Representatives, the lock the (arguably corrupt and unaccountable) Democrats and Republicans have on that sad chamber would be broken......and voters would have real choice.
How many Americans know that every two years more than 98% of incumbents are re-elected......thanks to the often profound gerrymandering of district boundaries by state legislatures? This has been going on for a VERY long time.....with the incumbency rate being over 90% since 1954 (except for "only" 88% in 1964). The past 5 House elections have all been over 98% and two of those have been over 99%. Once in the House, it is almost impossible to lose your seat.
This extreme level of "incumbency" in a multi-party democracy is a large part of what the "problem" is in America.....and all the consequent problems that flow fomr it won't be fixed until this fundamental structural failing of the US system is addressed in a way that actually fixes it.
A move to proportional representation would eliminate gerrymandering and make the House truly representative of American voters in a way that it isn't and hasn't been for many, many years.
No point buying a system from a vendor that doesn't support you.
I'll either carry on making my own systems - as I have for the past 15 years for my desktops - or I'll buy a laptop from a vendor who does support Linux.
They are out there.
I've already made it clear I don't agree - and for the reasons given.
So simply restating erroneous assertions doesn't advance your argument in any way.
Pirate Bay no more INTENDED to faciliate crime than an Interstate Highway is intended to provide a getaway route for bank robbers.
That they CAN be used that way is up to the user.......or highway builders would all be de facto accessories to every crime aided or committed by the existence of highways.
In my experience over the past 20 years, auctioning spectrum typically results in expensive spectrum you can't afford to actually use because the purchaser paid too much for it and the consequence pricing is prohibitive. Maybe a lottery....but please.....no more auctions.
Having tried all the distros you mentioned, from the perspective of "just use it", Xandros is better than the distros you mention....
My 70yo mother uses Xandros 3.0 daily with little muss nor fuss for all her needs - e-mail, browsing, word processing.
The lack of preconceptions is a key consideration in making a tranistion to Linux. She likes the lack of pop-ups and the viruses and says it just feels good.
Your narrow focus on bits and bytes appears intended to ignore the very important change in use from purely governmental / academic to open and ready for business as well. You can ignore it if you like. But I won't join you in doing so. The Internet of today isn't the environment it was before Gore's law was passed. Gore did enable the Internet of today - encompassing in that term not just the OSI layers but also the way we use them. YOu can define it your way - and that's OK. But it's not a definition I agree with or accept.
He DID create it as it is today - an open, public network.
If he claimed anywhere to have invented the technology, I haven't heard that. But his claim - as a legislator - to have created 'the Internet' is valid in that context.
Correct. I remember in 1988 when Gore was championing the opening up of the Internet for public use......when most people had no idea it even existed. He DID sponsor the bill the made the Internet what it is today..... All credit to him....and all crud dumped on the folks who have tried to misrepresent what he did.