Just to clarify. Microsoft do not 'beleive in the Xbox. They've lost billions to it.
They 'beleive' in trying to find any way they can to extend their monopoly, as that is the only realm within which they have made a profit in a very long time.
Microsoft have never been in favour of the knowledgeable end user, ever. They like nice complient end users who don't know anything bar what microsoft want them to know. I went to a microsoft presentation where they said they had no interest in employing 'hackers' (in the true sense of the term), they only wanted profesional and serious coders. They don't want to understand freedom in computing, because they don't see how they can survive in that climate.
This 'renewal of your OS licence after so many changes' policy will likely survive for a while, but only succeed long term if no-one else manages to seriously dent their monopoly. I see no chance of that happening any time soon, sadly.
This is their alternative to the rental model of software provision. They can't turn their monolithic company round to offer a true and useful rental system such as seems to be the way forward, so this exists in its place. FOSS has the advantage that in effect it already has a rental system in place (for large software products). You can have the software for nowt, but you must pay an ongoing fee for support. Closed source vendors need to compete with this, and its darned hard. Its hardest of all for microsoft, since they spent decades building up and steering the proprietary software world, and its crumbling already.
For years Windows in its varying incarnations has always looked better then linux out of the box. It may not have been as secure, or as polished, or be able to do as much, but it looked nice. People weren't threatened by the complexity.
Why else would they tolerate such godawful performance problems, hidious to no existant security and application vendors that make you pay a fortune for applications that just make up for the shortfalls in the OS.
Pretty is important to consumers, whether we like it or not, even if you take into account most peoples ignorance of the alternatives brought about by monopalistic practices
ID software had mud brown as the predominant colour in their games for years and it didn't hurt them.
Have you ever wondered why people have brown carpets? Its a throwback to the brown hue the floors in ancient dwellings had. People find it comforting, much like the odd green used in theatre gowns (chosen for that very reason). Brown is a colour that people find to be easy on the eye.
Oh, didn't think of that, but then I'm not a web dev.
My programming is typically that I get a task, and get left to do it how I want, in whatever time I feel like doing it. The only requirement is that it actually get done, and well.
I have no customer facing activity in my role, it's low level algorithm development, meaning I get to wander off for a while (or days) if I get fed up and need a break. Bliss you might think, but its mainly because the work is brain strainingly hard at times, and I usually end up pulling all nighters when I hit the zone.
It's a website, surely they could handle remote coders? After all, even a guy sat at a desk on site is still using the same access mechanism as someone anywhere else in the world would.
Lua has one major advantage over Python, that is it's use in a number of very populer mainstream games. Supreme commander uses it, and that may be enough to get it more populer.
populer != best, but best is a relative term. Fit for purpose is more relevent. I do like python, but I'm starting to apreciate what lua enables in game modding, in so far as it involves the games I like.
Interesting post, but I wish people wouldn't say they were 'against copyright'.
I'm not against it at all, I have a reasonable number of publically available copyrighted peices of software that I maintain, and I am very much in favour of copyright, I wrote my stuff, I hold the rights to it.
What I am against is people using the word copyright to bludgeon others into holding up a failing business model, OR using it to try and vilify that same failing industry.
Re:Just wait till he starts on his next theory..
on
The Sun Had Sisters
·
· Score: 1
Hi, did anyone call for a really hairy astrophysicist?
there's no way a war against north korea would be anything but short and horrific. However any country doing it would get a lot of flack, since north korea is essentially incapable of defending itself, in that it has no ability for a sustained war.
It would be analagous to shooting a schoolyard bully. It can be done, but not without getting into a huge amount of trouble.
NK knows this, or their leaders do. They know that the US don't dare attack, but are obligated to defend South Korea against an attack that will likely never come. So long as the US is there, the NK regime is safe from collapse, or so they think.
In the modern age a war against them would be over fairly soon, and invaders, while winning fast, would then have a massive humanitarian disaster on their hands. China is particulerly worried about this aspect.
their priority seems to be to create a distraction from their troubles. They know they no-one dares invade, for fear of wrecking complex international relationships (such as with China). This is an exercise to distract their population from the fact that their country is circling the drain.
If the US leaves the region, which was on the cards, then they lose the 'huge army on our doorstep' argument for maintaining their unrealistic regime. Now the US dare not leave, which is a victory for North Korea.
That's more or less it, so far as I can tell. Their test was a flop, and they can't feed their population, let alone afford a military campaign. As it is most of the money they might use on that comes from us.
This is all bound to fail anyway, chances are North Korea won't survive the decade. As it is their hold on ther population is slipping.
from their point of view, yes, since someone paid them for the right to broadcast on tv, but they get no royalties for unauthorised web broadcast.
Posting clips on youtube might be legal of they were done as satire, as in with voiceover, or edited in some other way, but straight off pasting of entire clips, or collections of clips is not defensible under satire, so comes under copyright violation.
Fair use means you have the right to make your own copies, or (so far as I recall) use as satire. It does not impart the right to rebroadcast, which posting on youtube/google video is equivilent too.
I don't know how far satire can be stretched either. Possibly the huge volume of content means they'll just steamroller over people who are posting satire (which I'm sure they'd love to do anyway).
It's a shame, since I have also purchased content I've caught on the web, but this transmission method does not fit within their business model, so they can't allow it.
these adverts aren't on in the uk, I've found the link to them on the Apple site, I must see what all the fuss is about.
Macs are not looked on kindly in the UK. I know of barely anyone who wants/owns one, and fewer still who are willing to say a good word about it. The only UK person I know who's pashionate about them lives and works in the states.
Curiously I also know many people who suffer constant problems with their wintel boxes, and often these are the same people. I own mainly 'PC's, but with linux (although I am shamefully typing this on a demon spawned Wintel/AOL machine).
I'm getting myself a Mac as a graduation present, and hang the critics. I want build quality.
You're typical first post addict is so concerned with getting there that all they have time for is the short 'first post' sentance, or even just 'fp' before the need for a cigarette and a kleenex kicks in....
well, much like Wilbur and Oswald didn't actually build the first plane, just the first decent one, apple applied the term pc effectivelly for the first time.
More likely though is that now they've started to get a serious peice of the music hardware market, they want to push their pc products more on the back of it.
And PC is the correct term, Apple created the term PC, which applied to Apple computers/all proper computers around at the time.
Battery powered lawnmower? Sounds interesting. We're the only garden in the neighborhood that attracts loads of nesting birds, on account of our surrounding neighbors all having manicured 'perfect' gardens.
As for where you live, All we have to do is clone you and replace you're neighbors with you, and the problem would go away..
Sadly, the percentage of people with common sense on this issue is distressingly small.
pre defined hard limits on hardware usage per OS for 'safety' perhaps.
Something that the experienced user could set with ease, but with a default setting that would downgrade processor performance or suchlike 'to prevent damage' which newbie users wouldn't even know about, and would see as poor performance.
That's probably fanciful, but if they can justify trying to make people re-buy an OS costing hundreds of pounds just because they've replace some hardware a few times, then I would not put it past them trying something.
it's more to do with the habitat. Grasses need not to be mown for wildlife to be attracted to them. We have hedgehogs (lovely things that keep down the slugs), butterflies, and a pair of greentits that have nested in our garden for years.
There are disadvantages, we now can't use a portion of our patio because of birdsnests we daren't disturb. Still watching the parents feed them is a joy.
ah, Rhododendron, that's the one. I went to the south of england a few years ago with a friend, and he ranted on about them, they seemed to be everywhere.
I knew about the victorians, those grand gardens and their competition to have the finest plants left us with a whole load of problems.
I prefer the semi-wilderness aproach to gardening, a nice lawn, some paving for social events, and a large unmanaged area in which can be found all sorts of insects and animals. Some find that untidy, but I like the variety
Slashdot Mirror
Just to clarify. Microsoft do not 'beleive in the Xbox. They've lost billions to it.
They 'beleive' in trying to find any way they can to extend their monopoly, as that is the only realm within which they have made a profit in a very long time.
Microsoft have never been in favour of the knowledgeable end user, ever. They like nice complient end users who don't know anything bar what microsoft want them to know.
I went to a microsoft presentation where they said they had no interest in employing 'hackers' (in the true sense of the term), they only wanted profesional and serious coders. They don't want to understand freedom in computing, because they don't see how they can survive in that climate.
This 'renewal of your OS licence after so many changes' policy will likely survive for a while, but only succeed long term if no-one else manages to seriously dent their monopoly. I see no chance of that happening any time soon, sadly.
This is their alternative to the rental model of software provision. They can't turn their monolithic company round to offer a true and useful rental system such as seems to be the way forward, so this exists in its place.
FOSS has the advantage that in effect it already has a rental system in place (for large software products). You can have the software for nowt, but you must pay an ongoing fee for support. Closed source vendors need to compete with this, and its darned hard. Its hardest of all for microsoft, since they spent decades building up and steering the proprietary software world, and its crumbling already.
For years Windows in its varying incarnations has always looked better then linux out of the box.
It may not have been as secure, or as polished, or be able to do as much, but it looked nice. People weren't threatened by the complexity.
Why else would they tolerate such godawful performance problems, hidious to no existant security and application vendors that make you pay a fortune for applications that just make up for the shortfalls in the OS.
Pretty is important to consumers, whether we like it or not, even if you take into account most peoples ignorance of the alternatives brought about by monopalistic practices
ID software had mud brown as the predominant colour in their games for years and it didn't hurt them.
Have you ever wondered why people have brown carpets? Its a throwback to the brown hue the floors in ancient dwellings had. People find it comforting, much like the odd green used in theatre gowns (chosen for that very reason). Brown is a colour that people find to be easy on the eye.
Oh, didn't think of that, but then I'm not a web dev.
My programming is typically that I get a task, and get left to do it how I want, in whatever time I feel like doing it. The only requirement is that it actually get done, and well.
I have no customer facing activity in my role, it's low level algorithm development, meaning I get to wander off for a while (or days) if I get fed up and need a break. Bliss you might think, but its mainly because the work is brain strainingly hard at times, and I usually end up pulling all nighters when I hit the zone.
It's a website, surely they could handle remote coders? After all, even a guy sat at a desk on site is still using the same access mechanism as someone anywhere else in the world would.
Water flow harmony? on a fucking website? Sweet Zombie Jesus...
Millhouse's Dad?
Lua has one major advantage over Python, that is it's use in a number of very populer mainstream games. Supreme commander uses it, and that may be enough to get it more populer.
populer != best, but best is a relative term. Fit for purpose is more relevent. I do like python, but I'm starting to apreciate what lua enables in game modding, in so far as it involves the games I like.
Interesting post, but I wish people wouldn't say they were 'against copyright'.
I'm not against it at all, I have a reasonable number of publically available copyrighted peices of software that I maintain, and I am very much in favour of copyright, I wrote my stuff, I hold the rights to it.
What I am against is people using the word copyright to bludgeon others into holding up a failing business model, OR using it to try and vilify that same failing industry.
Hi, did anyone call for a really hairy astrophysicist?
there's no way a war against north korea would be anything but short and horrific. However any country doing it would get a lot of flack, since north korea is essentially incapable of defending itself, in that it has no ability for a sustained war.
It would be analagous to shooting a schoolyard bully. It can be done, but not without getting into a huge amount of trouble.
NK knows this, or their leaders do. They know that the US don't dare attack, but are obligated to defend South Korea against an attack that will likely never come. So long as the US is there, the NK regime is safe from collapse, or so they think.
In the modern age a war against them would be over fairly soon, and invaders, while winning fast, would then have a massive humanitarian disaster on their hands. China is particulerly worried about this aspect.
their priority seems to be to create a distraction from their troubles. They know they no-one dares invade, for fear of wrecking complex international relationships (such as with China). This is an exercise to distract their population from the fact that their country is circling the drain.
If the US leaves the region, which was on the cards, then they lose the 'huge army on our doorstep' argument for maintaining their unrealistic regime. Now the US dare not leave, which is a victory for North Korea.
That's more or less it, so far as I can tell. Their test was a flop, and they can't feed their population, let alone afford a military campaign. As it is most of the money they might use on that comes from us.
This is all bound to fail anyway, chances are North Korea won't survive the decade. As it is their hold on ther population is slipping.
from their point of view, yes, since someone paid them for the right to broadcast on tv, but they get no royalties for unauthorised web broadcast.
Posting clips on youtube might be legal of they were done as satire, as in with voiceover, or edited in some other way, but straight off pasting of entire clips, or collections of clips is not defensible under satire, so comes under copyright violation.
Fair use means you have the right to make your own copies, or (so far as I recall) use as satire. It does not impart the right to rebroadcast, which posting on youtube/google video is equivilent too.
I don't know how far satire can be stretched either. Possibly the huge volume of content means they'll just steamroller over people who are posting satire (which I'm sure they'd love to do anyway).
For a good example of defensible satire, check out vader sessions on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A0rwG39Jzk
It's a shame, since I have also purchased content I've caught on the web, but this transmission method does not fit within their business model, so they can't allow it.
I beleive sexual reproduction is acheived through bumping into each other at star trek conventions.
these adverts aren't on in the uk, I've found the link to them on the Apple site, I must see what all the fuss is about.
Macs are not looked on kindly in the UK. I know of barely anyone who wants/owns one, and fewer still who are willing to say a good word about it. The only UK person I know who's pashionate about them lives and works in the states.
Curiously I also know many people who suffer constant problems with their wintel boxes, and often these are the same people. I own mainly 'PC's, but with linux (although I am shamefully typing this on a demon spawned Wintel/AOL machine).
I'm getting myself a Mac as a graduation present, and hang the critics. I want build quality.
yes, odd that. However, marketting people are paid to produce stuff people will understand, not live in the [ast.
you miss the point.
You're typical first post addict is so concerned with getting there that all they have time for is the short 'first post' sentance, or even just 'fp' before the need for a cigarette and a kleenex kicks in....
well, much like Wilbur and Oswald didn't actually build the first plane, just the first decent one, apple applied the term pc effectivelly for the first time.
Well that's how it seems to me
sounds like a good reason to me.
More likely though is that now they've started to get a serious peice of the music hardware market, they want to push their pc products more on the back of it.
And PC is the correct term, Apple created the term PC, which applied to Apple computers/all proper computers around at the time.
Battery powered lawnmower? Sounds interesting. We're the only garden in the neighborhood that attracts loads of nesting birds, on account of our surrounding neighbors all having manicured 'perfect' gardens.
As for where you live, All we have to do is clone you and replace you're neighbors with you, and the problem would go away..
Sadly, the percentage of people with common sense on this issue is distressingly small.
are there not also control instructions to add to the mix? Surely it isn't just a case of transfering the bitmap from the buffer.
I know crap all about monitors though...
pre defined hard limits on hardware usage per OS for 'safety' perhaps.
Something that the experienced user could set with ease, but with a default setting that would downgrade processor performance or suchlike 'to prevent damage' which newbie users wouldn't even know about, and would see as poor performance.
That's probably fanciful, but if they can justify trying to make people re-buy an OS costing hundreds of pounds just because they've replace some hardware a few times, then I would not put it past them trying something.
Nice...
it's more to do with the habitat. Grasses need not to be mown for wildlife to be attracted to them. We have hedgehogs (lovely things that keep down the slugs), butterflies, and a pair of greentits that have nested in our garden for years.
There are disadvantages, we now can't use a portion of our patio because of birdsnests we daren't disturb. Still watching the parents feed them is a joy.
ah, Rhododendron, that's the one. I went to the south of england a few years ago with a friend, and he ranted on about them, they seemed to be everywhere.
I knew about the victorians, those grand gardens and their competition to have the finest plants left us with a whole load of problems.
I prefer the semi-wilderness aproach to gardening, a nice lawn, some paving for social events, and a large unmanaged area in which can be found all sorts of insects and animals. Some find that untidy, but I like the variety