If you're not interested in OS's I suggest you change your filter settings or don't click on articles that are discussions about them, like this one obviously is.
Hmm, yes and no. It is of course kind of wise to avoid discussions where people try to prove their superiority (slashdot might be such a site). On the other hand it might not a bad thing when such people sometimes are confronted with a different opinion. Of course that has the risk of being ignored of "modded down". I don't often participate in discussions here. Usually I happily ignore OS discussions here (and in general).
I am however interested in OS's. But not when the discussion is zealot vs zealot, because that is a pointless discussion. Your example about the spell checker is however a good example. OS's can be improved. Although I suspect that geeks don't spell check. But maybe they do, I don't know. I have never seen geeks getting excited about spell checking (I am not excited about it either, although it is clearly something useful)
Almost everyone here uses computers for their job and many of us develop them. It is only natural that it will be a huge subject of interest.
So do I (use computers for my job). I don't see comments how a Mac makes it easier for a programmer. Do people use Macs for programming? Is there a decent database available? Webserver? I mean something that really makes it better than Windows and Linux? When that is the case nobody ever mentions it. The discussion is about gadgets, not about work-related stuff. Gadgets do not have my interest. I would like if is the discussion would be about something more useful then gadgets. A computer is a tool. Not something to impress the other guys with - although it is clearly being used for that.
As for the Apple and Linux evangelists. I think you understand that I think they are boring, and I wish they would give way to people who really have something useful to say.
The choice of an OS has been made an emotional thing. And my emotion is that I have grown tired of the Mac-ideologists. Maybe you are right that the vast majority of them don't evangelize. That does not make much of a difference though, because there are still enough evangelizing. It is important to realize that an OS is just an OS. Just like many people don't care about which brand of car they drive (and indeed I would really have to think about which brand of car I own, it's just not important).
Apple is a religion. Or it is presented like that. At least Windows users have a sound scepsis about their OS and about the company that provides it. The spyware and virus problems are hardly noticable (non-existent) if one avoids using Internet Explorer. And BSOD's don't happen to me (not in Windows 2000 and higher).
My experience with Apple is indeed limited. I have tried to solve other peoples problems on it, of course I couldn't, because my Windows expertise is of no use on a Mac.
Personally I like the concept of Linux most. And probably it appeals to most people to have a free OS. There is a limit to what an OS really can do. In fact an OS just needs to work as an intermedium between hardware and programs. Nothing more, nothing less. There is no reason to get excited (or even religious) about an OS. You don't get excited about the floor in your house. It just needs to be there.
Fact is that people will simply praise the OS they have invested in.
Mac are expensive. People don't want feel like a loser, so they will defend Mac whenever they have invested in it.
Linux: it's free, but you have to invest a lot of time to get used to it. It seems the most logical that in the end every one will go for Linux. It just needs some time for more and more people to get the courage to start with Linux. Because why should anyone pay for an OS if there is a free alternative?
Finally Windows. Well, you won't see many people defending Windows. It's the basic. It takes no decision to use Windows. There is no point in defending it, because there is nothing to lose in terms of defending a decision. Oh, maybe there is. I love to keep old machines usable. There are just a handful of interesting programs that do not support Win98. In fact I recently upgraded my 6-7 years old Win98 machine to self-built new machine with Windows XP x64. Only to find out that many things don't have 64-bits drivers. Camera's, minidisk. Solution: run Win98 in VMWare player. It all works now. O yeah, and I will be running a Linux version too in VMWare player. To get used to it. Because I don't like that MS basically does not trust me, and makes me confirm every time that I don't have an illegal copy running. So next machine (in 5 or 8 or 10 years) will be just Linux.
But I would never use a Mac. It is soooo snobbish. There is no way I want to be part of that snobbish Mac-defenders group. I wished they would shut up and consider Mac for what it is: an overpriced BSD clone, that is just used to brag about.
> Is it fair that I get locked up because one a month I spent a day telling people to go fuck themselvs and verbally abusing those close to me who try to help?
My girlfriend has those monthly periods too. Are you male or female?
You mean like everybody who drives a car that is older then 5 years is a technical nitwit and afraid to open the cars hood?
You know, it is probably quite the opposite of your claim. There are people who take pride in being able to work with older stuff. My 6 years old Win98 box in practice runs faster then most of the WinXP boxes of people around me. And I am proud of it.
I am not a computer nerd, but I work as a web developer, you know doing serverside stuff and databases. On Windows. Here you got a list of things where I got stuck after installing Ubuntu. Of course you can tell me I should have tried harder. I probablably should have. But to me there is nothing intuitive about Linux. And I have other things to do in life as well.
* I got lost in setting permissions on the filesystem. It is so different. And yes, I did try to find out. There should at least be some easy-to-find help on how to do it.
* Next I downloaded a program I wanted installed. Downloading goes okay of course. But how does one install a downloaded program? I tried to logical things like doubleclicking, rightclicking. It does not work. Plllease. Do you expect me to go to some forum and ask there how to install an executable?
So what can I do with the box with Linux installed? Yes, I can surf, e-mail, do office things, get lost in GIMP. Nothing that I can not do on my Windows box.
What I would need is not a Linux that automatically thinks for me. I can think for myself. I can do with Windows what I want. I need a Linux that at least has a basic explanantion built in for Windows users who want a bit more then just surfing and emailing.
And then I expect trouble with digital photography. Everyone is going to have a digital camera, and everyone gets a CD with a Windows program that nicely helps to read the photos and to organize them. But of course that is only a Windows program. And for a OSX. But not for Linux. And even if that is successfull, would I need to work with GIMP to process the photos? No, thank you. And what about my Minidisk? Will I be able to connect it to Linux?
I am going to buy a new computer this year, and maybe, maybe it's going to be a double boot. I am sure I will need Windows. The installation of Linux depends on my progress on getting used with the Linux box which I still have. I haven't looked at it for weeks.
Flame me if you want, but I think that for a Windows user, Linux means a new long learning traject with no guarantee that it will ever be as usefull as using Windows.
This is a very silly comment. It's not even funny. If you are not interested in biology, then don't read it, and don't comment on it with annoying comments.
In fact we don't know a lot about how mutations occur. That's why it's said to occur randomly. Given the complexity of organisms, mutations probably are not that "random". It might be that certain type of mutations do occur more often in a wamer environment, others in a saltier, colder or acid environment. If such an mutations occurs more in let's say a warmer environment, then it does not mean that it makes the organism better fit for a warmer environment.
That having said, it can even be viewed at a higher abstraction level. Maybe organisms have already gone through a selection process with the result that mutations that have a higher chance of occurring in a warmer environment, will also benefit the fitness of that organism in a higher environment.
But it seems clear to me that stating that mutations occur randomly, underestimates the process. It's a simplification which usually is fine, but now it seems that research is showing that maybe it isn't that random. The next step in research is unraveling how mutations aren't random, and then try to answer how this has evolved.
> Just because Microsoft stops officially supporting a product does not mean everyone has to run out and get the latest version
You are saying bullshit. On a personal level you might use an outdated Microsoft forever. But when you have a company and have 10 licences for Office 97, when the 11th employee comes in, you can not even buy another Office 97 license. Which means of course that the new employee gets a licence for the current version of Office. And that means the whole company needs to upgrade, because the Office 97 can not read the formats of the latest Office version.
Yes, indeed, you could instruct the new employee to save all his work in Office 97 format. But that is probably turning out to be a big loss in time, lead to many misunderstandings and it turns out to be be cheaper to upgrape the whole company.
To me it seemed a very strange thing to download porn, just to be able to burn it afterwards. That is, until I understood it was about burning on a CD.
I imagined that someone tried to destroy porn this way. An incredibly stupid person, because the original porn would still remain available for download.
>> Not a technical issue; the application's name does not hinder your use of it.
You'd be surprised how people think in pronouncable words. Opening an application requires recognition. It's a lot easier to recognize something that can be pronounced.
Have you ever tried to drive to a city following road signs in a language that is completely foreign to you? You'd be surprised how hard it is to remember a "word" which isn't pronouncable to you.
People want to feel familiar with their computer, not have the feeling that they are abroad and have to use meaningless words. Of course people will get used to any "word" after a while. But a strange and unpronouncable name for a program might stop them from trying it in the first place.
GIMP sounds unfriendly, at least to me it does. It sounds like a badly mooded giant. That's one of the reasons i never tried it. I prefer working with the tools i know. I know i might miss something terribly good, but that's the way it is.
>> Names don't matter, it is all about training and then familiarity.
Of course names matter. I have no idea how to pronounce GIMP, should i spell it out, like G-I-M-P? And what about Xine? Again, i rather not tell anyone about it, because i am afraid to pronounce it badly. I dare to pronounce WINE though, that sounds familiar. What is more important, people who hear me pronounce "WINE" have a pretty good idea how it is spelled, so they will recognize it when they read it.
>> Oh, and what does Exel and Outlook do?
"Excel" is fine, even if you spell it wrong everybody knows what you mean.
So now that I finally confessed: how to pronounce GIMP? and Xine?
2.4 million new jobs ?? Wow. I wonder what those people will do. Would that be programmers that fix the bugs before software is being released? Or would that be programmers that build extensions to the software, so it can be sold at a higher price? Or are that programmers who build completely new innovative software products that will be sold?
Or will that be lawyers who earn their money in patent cases?
Somehow something is very very wrong with the reasoning that if people would have paid for what they pirated there would be a lot more money in the economy. If every one had unlimited money, then yes, ok, but then there would be unlimited money already. The whole point of money is that you can spend it only once.
Money that is not spend on a software product, because it is obtained illegally, is not mysteriously "lost", and can not be magically "recovered" by a reduction of piracy.
I can understand that a software company prefers people paying, and that that helps the financial situation of that particular company. But you can't just add up all virtual losses, and state that that is the total amount of money that will magically pop up when everybody would be paying.
Don't underestimate the percentage that knows about it. Most people that are raised protestant probably heard about it. The actual participation is probably quite low. Searching for dankdag gives > 25k hits. It might be a bit out of your personal life, but then again, slashdot visitors are in no way representative for a population.
In the Netherlands there is a Dankdag voor Gewas en Arbeid (thanksgiving for crops and labor). It is only being "celebrated" in some protestant circles. The official date is the first Wednesday in November. Originally it was only for "crops", the "labor" part was added at some point after the industrialization.
This tradition stems from the Middle Ages. There is a similar day for prayer for crops (and labor), which is on the second Wednesday in March.
I have no idea if this holds any relation with Thanksgiving as is celebrated in the USA. The way it is "celebrated" in the Netherlands is that there is a special service in church where respectively prayer and thanksgiving for the crops are explicitely mentioned. There is nothing like special food or even families coming together for it. Just some people going to church.
First that is not a hole in the evolution theory itself.
Second, the rotation of the Earth is slowing down, but not at the rate you think it is. If it had been slowing down at the current rate, then 4.6 billion years ago, a day would have lasted about 14 hours. That is not "spinning so fast it would have flown apart".
I always wonder what those supposed holes in the evolution theory are. There is a difference between a description of each mutation that has lead to every species that existed and a theory of how the processes work.
The evolution theory is a theory of processes, not a description of each step.
Of course there are some issues which might need a closer look, such as the Cambrian Explosion. And of course some more subtheories such as punctated equilibrium and convergent evolution might be proposed and be incorporated. You can discuss if evolution is a more a result of selection on the level of genes or on the level of populations. But those things are not "holes". Whatever the outcome of the scientific debate on these issues, it will not mean a fundamental change to the evolution theory as it is understood now.
There have indeed been cases of farmers being sued by Monsanto because their crops were contaminated bij pollen from nearby Monsanto crops. The most famous case is Monsanto vs Schmeiser.
don't use so many antibiotics
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A Flu Pandemic?
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· Score: 1
I haven't been sick enough to need antibiotics in more than a year and a half.
You write as though this is a long time. It depends very much on how quickly doctors prescribe antibiotics. Personally I can not remember the last time that I had antibiotics prescribed, I guess it must have been some 15-20 years ago. Usually antibiotics don't cure anything that your own body can't cure. Of course in special cases antibiotics are very helpful. But it's not something that a healthy person would need every other year.
The trouble with the easy prescription of antibiotics in many countries is that bacteria build immunity to it. Why do you think that there is so much more MRSA in the USA
But they should be married before trying....
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The Los Alamos Bug
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Creating life without being married is not what reborn christians are supposed to do.
Why not do it like car insurance companies do: give users more rights when they did not have virusses and spyware for a month, and take rights from the user when they got a virus or spyware.
Many men choose wives. Some men love to choose a wife that is a real challenge. You need to think, understand, study some psychology books, find a strategy, use that strategy, maybe even find and use some tools to convince her to have sex.
Other men are lazy. They prefer to watch TV when they come home from work, and have sex without thinking.
What I mean to say is that the desire to use Linux because you need to think, is not going to save our civilization.
I prefer to think about the direction I want to go, and not to spend my thoughts on how to put one foot before the other. And I don't think the world will be a better place when we all start thinking about which muscles to move just to take a step.
I have nothing against Linux, but I have something against BS-argumentation.
Slashdot Mirror
Hmm, yes and no. It is of course kind of wise to avoid discussions where people try to prove their superiority (slashdot might be such a site). On the other hand it might not a bad thing when such people sometimes are confronted with a different opinion. Of course that has the risk of being ignored of "modded down". I don't often participate in discussions here. Usually I happily ignore OS discussions here (and in general).
I am however interested in OS's. But not when the discussion is zealot vs zealot, because that is a pointless discussion. Your example about the spell checker is however a good example. OS's can be improved. Although I suspect that geeks don't spell check. But maybe they do, I don't know. I have never seen geeks getting excited about spell checking (I am not excited about it either, although it is clearly something useful)
Almost everyone here uses computers for their job and many of us develop them. It is only natural that it will be a huge subject of interest.
So do I (use computers for my job). I don't see comments how a Mac makes it easier for a programmer. Do people use Macs for programming? Is there a decent database available? Webserver? I mean something that really makes it better than Windows and Linux? When that is the case nobody ever mentions it. The discussion is about gadgets, not about work-related stuff. Gadgets do not have my interest. I would like if is the discussion would be about something more useful then gadgets. A computer is a tool. Not something to impress the other guys with - although it is clearly being used for that.
As for the Apple and Linux evangelists. I think you understand that I think they are boring, and I wish they would give way to people who really have something useful to say.
The choice of an OS has been made an emotional thing. And my emotion is that I have grown tired of the Mac-ideologists. Maybe you are right that the vast majority of them don't evangelize. That does not make much of a difference though, because there are still enough evangelizing. It is important to realize that an OS is just an OS. Just like many people don't care about which brand of car they drive (and indeed I would really have to think about which brand of car I own, it's just not important).
Apple is a religion. Or it is presented like that. At least Windows users have a sound scepsis about their OS and about the company that provides it. The spyware and virus problems are hardly noticable (non-existent) if one avoids using Internet Explorer. And BSOD's don't happen to me (not in Windows 2000 and higher).
My experience with Apple is indeed limited. I have tried to solve other peoples problems on it, of course I couldn't, because my Windows expertise is of no use on a Mac.
Personally I like the concept of Linux most. And probably it appeals to most people to have a free OS. There is a limit to what an OS really can do. In fact an OS just needs to work as an intermedium between hardware and programs. Nothing more, nothing less. There is no reason to get excited (or even religious) about an OS. You don't get excited about the floor in your house. It just needs to be there.
Mac are expensive. People don't want feel like a loser, so they will defend Mac whenever they have invested in it.
Linux: it's free, but you have to invest a lot of time to get used to it. It seems the most logical that in the end every one will go for Linux. It just needs some time for more and more people to get the courage to start with Linux. Because why should anyone pay for an OS if there is a free alternative?
Finally Windows. Well, you won't see many people defending Windows. It's the basic. It takes no decision to use Windows. There is no point in defending it, because there is nothing to lose in terms of defending a decision. Oh, maybe there is. I love to keep old machines usable. There are just a handful of interesting programs that do not support Win98. In fact I recently upgraded my 6-7 years old Win98 machine to self-built new machine with Windows XP x64. Only to find out that many things don't have 64-bits drivers. Camera's, minidisk. Solution: run Win98 in VMWare player. It all works now. O yeah, and I will be running a Linux version too in VMWare player. To get used to it. Because I don't like that MS basically does not trust me, and makes me confirm every time that I don't have an illegal copy running. So next machine (in 5 or 8 or 10 years) will be just Linux.
But I would never use a Mac. It is soooo snobbish. There is no way I want to be part of that snobbish Mac-defenders group. I wished they would shut up and consider Mac for what it is: an overpriced BSD clone, that is just used to brag about.
My girlfriend has those monthly periods too. Are you male or female?
Heineken was first
You know, it is probably quite the opposite of your claim. There are people who take pride in being able to work with older stuff. My 6 years old Win98 box in practice runs faster then most of the WinXP boxes of people around me. And I am proud of it.
* I got lost in setting permissions on the filesystem. It is so different. And yes, I did try to find out. There should at least be some easy-to-find help on how to do it.
* Next I downloaded a program I wanted installed. Downloading goes okay of course. But how does one install a downloaded program? I tried to logical things like doubleclicking, rightclicking. It does not work. Plllease. Do you expect me to go to some forum and ask there how to install an executable?
So what can I do with the box with Linux installed? Yes, I can surf, e-mail, do office things, get lost in GIMP. Nothing that I can not do on my Windows box.
What I would need is not a Linux that automatically thinks for me. I can think for myself. I can do with Windows what I want. I need a Linux that at least has a basic explanantion built in for Windows users who want a bit more then just surfing and emailing.
And then I expect trouble with digital photography. Everyone is going to have a digital camera, and everyone gets a CD with a Windows program that nicely helps to read the photos and to organize them. But of course that is only a Windows program. And for a OSX. But not for Linux. And even if that is successfull, would I need to work with GIMP to process the photos? No, thank you. And what about my Minidisk? Will I be able to connect it to Linux?
I am going to buy a new computer this year, and maybe, maybe it's going to be a double boot. I am sure I will need Windows. The installation of Linux depends on my progress on getting used with the Linux box which I still have. I haven't looked at it for weeks.
Flame me if you want, but I think that for a Windows user, Linux means a new long learning traject with no guarantee that it will ever be as usefull as using Windows.
This is a very silly comment. It's not even funny. If you are not interested in biology, then don't read it, and don't comment on it with annoying comments.
That having said, it can even be viewed at a higher abstraction level. Maybe organisms have already gone through a selection process with the result that mutations that have a higher chance of occurring in a warmer environment, will also benefit the fitness of that organism in a higher environment.
But it seems clear to me that stating that mutations occur randomly, underestimates the process. It's a simplification which usually is fine, but now it seems that research is showing that maybe it isn't that random. The next step in research is unraveling how mutations aren't random, and then try to answer how this has evolved.
Yes, indeed, you could instruct the new employee to save all his work in Office 97 format. But that is probably turning out to be a big loss in time, lead to many misunderstandings and it turns out to be be cheaper to upgrape the whole company.
There actually was a third system, superior to both VHS and BetaMax. It was called Video 2000.
Local Group
I imagined that someone tried to destroy porn this way. An incredibly stupid person, because the original porn would still remain available for download.
You'd be surprised how people think in pronouncable words. Opening an application requires recognition. It's a lot easier to recognize something that can be pronounced.
Have you ever tried to drive to a city following road signs in a language that is completely foreign to you? You'd be surprised how hard it is to remember a "word" which isn't pronouncable to you.
People want to feel familiar with their computer, not have the feeling that they are abroad and have to use meaningless words. Of course people will get used to any "word" after a while. But a strange and unpronouncable name for a program might stop them from trying it in the first place.
GIMP sounds unfriendly, at least to me it does. It sounds like a badly mooded giant. That's one of the reasons i never tried it. I prefer working with the tools i know. I know i might miss something terribly good, but that's the way it is.
Of course names matter. I have no idea how to pronounce GIMP, should i spell it out, like G-I-M-P? And what about Xine? Again, i rather not tell anyone about it, because i am afraid to pronounce it badly. I dare to pronounce WINE though, that sounds familiar. What is more important, people who hear me pronounce "WINE" have a pretty good idea how it is spelled, so they will recognize it when they read it.
>> Oh, and what does Exel and Outlook do?
"Excel" is fine, even if you spell it wrong everybody knows what you mean.
So now that I finally confessed: how to pronounce GIMP? and Xine?
Or will that be lawyers who earn their money in patent cases?
Somehow something is very very wrong with the reasoning that if people would have paid for what they pirated there would be a lot more money in the economy. If every one had unlimited money, then yes, ok, but then there would be unlimited money already. The whole point of money is that you can spend it only once.
Money that is not spend on a software product, because it is obtained illegally, is not mysteriously "lost", and can not be magically "recovered" by a reduction of piracy.
I can understand that a software company prefers people paying, and that that helps the financial situation of that particular company. But you can't just add up all virtual losses, and state that that is the total amount of money that will magically pop up when everybody would be paying.
Don't underestimate the percentage that knows about it. Most people that are raised protestant probably heard about it. The actual participation is probably quite low. Searching for dankdag gives > 25k hits. It might be a bit out of your personal life, but then again, slashdot visitors are in no way representative for a population.
This tradition stems from the Middle Ages. There is a similar day for prayer for crops (and labor), which is on the second Wednesday in March.
I have no idea if this holds any relation with Thanksgiving as is celebrated in the USA. The way it is "celebrated" in the Netherlands is that there is a special service in church where respectively prayer and thanksgiving for the crops are explicitely mentioned. There is nothing like special food or even families coming together for it. Just some people going to church.
Second, the rotation of the Earth is slowing down, but not at the rate you think it is. If it had been slowing down at the current rate, then 4.6 billion years ago, a day would have lasted about 14 hours. That is not "spinning so fast it would have flown apart".
The evolution theory is a theory of processes, not a description of each step.
Of course there are some issues which might need a closer look, such as the Cambrian Explosion. And of course some more subtheories such as punctated equilibrium and convergent evolution might be proposed and be incorporated. You can discuss if evolution is a more a result of selection on the level of genes or on the level of populations. But those things are not "holes". Whatever the outcome of the scientific debate on these issues, it will not mean a fundamental change to the evolution theory as it is understood now.
So what are the holes you are talking about?
There have indeed been cases of farmers being sued by Monsanto because their crops were contaminated bij pollen from nearby Monsanto crops. The most famous case is Monsanto vs Schmeiser.
You write as though this is a long time. It depends very much on how quickly doctors prescribe antibiotics. Personally I can not remember the last time that I had antibiotics prescribed, I guess it must have been some 15-20 years ago. Usually antibiotics don't cure anything that your own body can't cure. Of course in special cases antibiotics are very helpful. But it's not something that a healthy person would need every other year.
The trouble with the easy prescription of antibiotics in many countries is that bacteria build immunity to it. Why do you think that there is so much more MRSA in the USA
Creating life without being married is not what reborn christians are supposed to do.
Why not do it like car insurance companies do: give users more rights when they did not have virusses and spyware for a month, and take rights from the user when they got a virus or spyware.
Other men are lazy. They prefer to watch TV when they come home from work, and have sex without thinking.
What I mean to say is that the desire to use Linux because you need to think, is not going to save our civilization.
I prefer to think about the direction I want to go, and not to spend my thoughts on how to put one foot before the other. And I don't think the world will be a better place when we all start thinking about which muscles to move just to take a step.
I have nothing against Linux, but I have something against BS-argumentation.