That myth doesn't happen anymore just to let you know. I've had Dish for quite a while now, and it has only gone out a couple times during extremely bad storms (Chicago). Before, I had Comcast, and let me tell you that they went down a lot more than that, and if you count the graphical and audio glitches that seem to happen every 15 minutes or so, you've got a shitload of downtime with that crappy company...
Well, maybe if people would move on and use other software like postfix and powerdns (just off the top of my head), we wouldn't be having all these issues, now would we?
This is quite an interesting idea, but I believe this would also be an idea that would completely crush Microsoft due to angry users who for some weird reason wouldn't like simplicity of this. It also sounds like something people wouldn't like due to the hardware incompatibility (how do developers write the drivers to work the hardware in the first place?). Also, Microsoft seems dead set on making a "consumer" version and an "enterprise" version whether you like it or not.:/
If you're looking for polish and consistency (well, those don't seem to coexist happily very often; think about it), look no further than Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mandriva, Linspire (which will be based on Kubuntu if it isn't already), and Fedora. I look forward to KDE 4 for a polish that should surpass any polish or consistency you come to expect in Windows (yeah right; polish, maybe, but consistency on Windows? laughable) or Mac OS X (polish definitely, and consistency is still weird when it comes to the GUI; I hear that will change in 10.5), but that's just me. For polish now, like I said, look at K/Ubuntu, Mandriva, Linspire, etc.
Tivo has decided to lock down their *hardware* and that is what gave rms a hissy fit. It ceases to be their *hardware* when I *buy* it from them. The fact that *my* hardware is locking me away from modifying code I have the legal right to modify while they continue to push their own DRM-encumbered updates is quite disgusting and reeks of corporate abuse of free software and my own rights as the customer who fucking paid for and now own the device.
use in running medical devices where you absolutely want to prohibit anyone from changing the binaries... Since when has medical devices been considered a "consumer product"!? Maybe you do need to read the license because things like medical devices are not affected by the anti-Tivoisation bit. Also, if absolutely nobody should be able to modify the software, then that should include the company distributing the software in the machine. Giving just them the ability to modify and use the code is unfair to the actual copyright holders as well as the customer who owns the device in the first place. However, this only looks to be an actual issue in "consumer" products that want to force DRM and other nonsense down our throats, so the GPLv3 prevents that by allowing the user to continue to modify and use the code regardless of the wishes of the distributor.
And before you or someone else says that the GPLv3 disallows DRM, I must tell you that it does none of that sort. Instead, it states that the code covered by this license are not "technological prevention" or whatever it's called in the DMCA so that the end user secures the right to modify, run, and distribute the code without being liable for being sued under 17 USC 1201 and all that legal mumbo-jumbo you may or may not remember from the DVD Jon and DeCSS case from years ago. What point is having the code under a copyleft license if the end user is still unable to legally modify and redistribute it? Also, to go back to the Tivoisation thing, what point is having the code under a copyleft license if the end user is still unable to modify and use the code on the device they own?
Besides, if you don't want to deal with the ramifications of using and distributing copyleft software, stick with the X11/BSD/MIT family of permissive licenses that basically say, "do whatever the fuck you want; I write this code so that anyone can use it for anything, so just give me credit." I feel that those licenses are entirely appropriate for other circumstances (e.g., essential libraries, drivers, low level system stuff, maybe even some kernel-related things), and others feel that it is an appropriate license for everything. We all have our own opinions, so just follow your own, but don't present it as fact (especially when the actual facts contradict it).
Besides, something that controls the power usage on the wireless card should be built into the fucking hardware, not controlled by an easily hackable blob. Speaking of which, with what you said, I'm sure it would be trivial to figure out how to get any and all wireless cards banned in those countries because no wireless card is invulnerable to hard hacking by a clever engineer.
And I was under the impression it was at 7%. See? I can make up statistics too. Nobody knows the per centage, and nobody will ever be able to know due to the nature of it. I can guess that there are at least as many Linux or Unix-like desktops out there as there are Mac OS X desktops, especially when you include workstations and dumb terminals (which non-techie people will all refer to as desktops anyhow). That's a pretty big number of people to ignore, and these hardware companies don't seem to notice that.
There are other companies like Intel which are recognising this fact and working with Linux, Xorg, etc., to get full, free drivers working for their hardware (they even employ some people to write these things). As it stands, the main companies that don't get it, full stop, are Broadcom (I couldn't care less about their shitty hardware, however), AMD/ATI (they can't write graphics drivers worth shit anyhow; just ask any gamer), and a few others. NVidia at least almost gets it and writes very functional drivers for Linux (Xorg and Xfree86 actually, although I don't know if they're compatible with XF86 anymore now that nobody uses it), but they aren't on feature-parity with their Windows counterparts. Plenty of Asian companies (Taiwan, Japan, etc.) get it as well and provide full documentation for their hardware in order to be included in Linux, BSD, et al.
So, as it stands, companies will either have to adapt (provide adequate documentation or open drivers or hope that someone successfully reverse engineers their hardware) or die, just like some other commonly-hated companies around here like Sony BMG, Universal, Warner Bros., Hollywood, etc.
Nielson Families is one common example of how TV ratings are typically done. People are basically polled at random and asked to keep a journal of what they watch. Using the power of statistics, the numbers are blown to the proportion of people actually watching TV, and they have their ratings.
Recently, they've been trying to figure out how to survey other entertainment forms as well due to the fact that they chip away at TV's expense.
Yeah, just have them go make blogs that nobody will read. In the meantime, the people who know how to write, whether it be a news site or blog even, will continue to get the readership they deserve.
Dude, it's a fucking video file (you know, kinda like YouTube). Download it (or stream it over HTTP) and watch it in your preferred media player. I recommend VLC.
Well, with how XML works, a WYSIWYG HTML editor should be able to easily produce valid and semantic code, but I'm sure the PHBs or whoever actually uses them would still find a way to fuck them up.
Perhaps Google can help in this situation by coding to standards rather than outputting invalid crap then, eh? They have tons of programmers who are experts in C(++?), Python, and Java (their main programming languages), and as they should know, those languages are far more strict than what works for JavaScript and HTML. Just look at their web page HTML tag soup and you'll see the problem. Saving bandwidth or not, I'm pretty sure that proper HTML would compress better than tag soup resulting in an overall smaller file size (crazy, I know).
Well, you could keep all your content in a DOM tree before generating the actual text so that you get valid markup (DOM isn't used exclusively in JavaScript). Or you could use XSLT to transform the data to proper HTML with no worries. Hell, I don't think it's good practise anymore (or might never have been) to just output HTML manually; that's what frameworks and other XML-based classes (or functions in other languages) are for. And when you parse user input, just parse it using some sort of forgiving parser (e.g., SAX) that can store it properly.
tl;dr version: use HTML generaters like XSLT or a DOM object to text method; stop manually writing templates like a web 1.0 person.
Well, Epic has made more Unreal Tournament online games than Bungie ever has, and Epic makes more than just UT. Off-topic, but Marathon is open source nowadays.:)
A perfect digital copy of cable shows? Are you serious? With how badly compressed they already are, you're better off downloading them on BitTorrent for the same (or better if their providers are better with compression) quality without the hassle.
Epic has a lot more experience in developing online games. Halo 2 was the first game Bungie developed that incorporated actual online play, and look at how well (or not) they did in relation to other successful online games (e.g., Counter-Strike, Unreal Tournament (an Epic game! oh my!), etc.). Maybe their developers are just still sore that they aren't making Mac-only games anymore?;p
Or GNOME or KDE for that matter. Hell, he probably doesn't even use any open source systems because you still need some GPL-licensed program (GCC) to make it work, even with systems like OpenBSD.
Slashdot Mirror
That myth doesn't happen anymore just to let you know. I've had Dish for quite a while now, and it has only gone out a couple times during extremely bad storms (Chicago). Before, I had Comcast, and let me tell you that they went down a lot more than that, and if you count the graphical and audio glitches that seem to happen every 15 minutes or so, you've got a shitload of downtime with that crappy company...
Well, maybe if people would move on and use other software like postfix and powerdns (just off the top of my head), we wouldn't be having all these issues, now would we?
This is quite an interesting idea, but I believe this would also be an idea that would completely crush Microsoft due to angry users who for some weird reason wouldn't like simplicity of this. It also sounds like something people wouldn't like due to the hardware incompatibility (how do developers write the drivers to work the hardware in the first place?). Also, Microsoft seems dead set on making a "consumer" version and an "enterprise" version whether you like it or not. :/
If you're looking for polish and consistency (well, those don't seem to coexist happily very often; think about it), look no further than Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mandriva, Linspire (which will be based on Kubuntu if it isn't already), and Fedora. I look forward to KDE 4 for a polish that should surpass any polish or consistency you come to expect in Windows (yeah right; polish, maybe, but consistency on Windows? laughable) or Mac OS X (polish definitely, and consistency is still weird when it comes to the GUI; I hear that will change in 10.5), but that's just me. For polish now, like I said, look at K/Ubuntu, Mandriva, Linspire, etc.
And before you or someone else says that the GPLv3 disallows DRM, I must tell you that it does none of that sort. Instead, it states that the code covered by this license are not "technological prevention" or whatever it's called in the DMCA so that the end user secures the right to modify, run, and distribute the code without being liable for being sued under 17 USC 1201 and all that legal mumbo-jumbo you may or may not remember from the DVD Jon and DeCSS case from years ago. What point is having the code under a copyleft license if the end user is still unable to legally modify and redistribute it? Also, to go back to the Tivoisation thing, what point is having the code under a copyleft license if the end user is still unable to modify and use the code on the device they own?
Besides, if you don't want to deal with the ramifications of using and distributing copyleft software, stick with the X11/BSD/MIT family of permissive licenses that basically say, "do whatever the fuck you want; I write this code so that anyone can use it for anything, so just give me credit." I feel that those licenses are entirely appropriate for other circumstances (e.g., essential libraries, drivers, low level system stuff, maybe even some kernel-related things), and others feel that it is an appropriate license for everything. We all have our own opinions, so just follow your own, but don't present it as fact (especially when the actual facts contradict it).
What countries? Name them.
Besides, something that controls the power usage on the wireless card should be built into the fucking hardware, not controlled by an easily hackable blob. Speaking of which, with what you said, I'm sure it would be trivial to figure out how to get any and all wireless cards banned in those countries because no wireless card is invulnerable to hard hacking by a clever engineer.
And I was under the impression it was at 7%. See? I can make up statistics too. Nobody knows the per centage, and nobody will ever be able to know due to the nature of it. I can guess that there are at least as many Linux or Unix-like desktops out there as there are Mac OS X desktops, especially when you include workstations and dumb terminals (which non-techie people will all refer to as desktops anyhow). That's a pretty big number of people to ignore, and these hardware companies don't seem to notice that.
There are other companies like Intel which are recognising this fact and working with Linux, Xorg, etc., to get full, free drivers working for their hardware (they even employ some people to write these things). As it stands, the main companies that don't get it, full stop, are Broadcom (I couldn't care less about their shitty hardware, however), AMD/ATI (they can't write graphics drivers worth shit anyhow; just ask any gamer), and a few others. NVidia at least almost gets it and writes very functional drivers for Linux (Xorg and Xfree86 actually, although I don't know if they're compatible with XF86 anymore now that nobody uses it), but they aren't on feature-parity with their Windows counterparts. Plenty of Asian companies (Taiwan, Japan, etc.) get it as well and provide full documentation for their hardware in order to be included in Linux, BSD, et al.
So, as it stands, companies will either have to adapt (provide adequate documentation or open drivers or hope that someone successfully reverse engineers their hardware) or die, just like some other commonly-hated companies around here like Sony BMG, Universal, Warner Bros., Hollywood, etc.
So it's like the new version of Geocities/Angelfire/etc.? Is that what you're saying?
Nielson Families is one common example of how TV ratings are typically done. People are basically polled at random and asked to keep a journal of what they watch. Using the power of statistics, the numbers are blown to the proportion of people actually watching TV, and they have their ratings.
Recently, they've been trying to figure out how to survey other entertainment forms as well due to the fact that they chip away at TV's expense.
Yeah, just have them go make blogs that nobody will read. In the meantime, the people who know how to write, whether it be a news site or blog even, will continue to get the readership they deserve.
But they didn't come to get a computer-related job, now did they?
Some wanker thought it would be funny to mod everything he could in this story flamebait. Take a look around. :/
Dude, it's a fucking video file (you know, kinda like YouTube). Download it (or stream it over HTTP) and watch it in your preferred media player. I recommend VLC.
The web browser developers are in the W3C...
Well, with how XML works, a WYSIWYG HTML editor should be able to easily produce valid and semantic code, but I'm sure the PHBs or whoever actually uses them would still find a way to fuck them up.
Perhaps Google can help in this situation by coding to standards rather than outputting invalid crap then, eh? They have tons of programmers who are experts in C(++?), Python, and Java (their main programming languages), and as they should know, those languages are far more strict than what works for JavaScript and HTML. Just look at their web page HTML tag soup and you'll see the problem. Saving bandwidth or not, I'm pretty sure that proper HTML would compress better than tag soup resulting in an overall smaller file size (crazy, I know).
Well, you could keep all your content in a DOM tree before generating the actual text so that you get valid markup (DOM isn't used exclusively in JavaScript). Or you could use XSLT to transform the data to proper HTML with no worries. Hell, I don't think it's good practise anymore (or might never have been) to just output HTML manually; that's what frameworks and other XML-based classes (or functions in other languages) are for. And when you parse user input, just parse it using some sort of forgiving parser (e.g., SAX) that can store it properly.
tl;dr version: use HTML generaters like XSLT or a DOM object to text method; stop manually writing templates like a web 1.0 person.
Japan is that other country nobody talks about that also enforces software patents...
No, it's more like:
If there is no legal (or affordable) way for me to obtain [a PS3] I would likely [build my own PS3, with blackjack, and hookers].
They wear clothes, don't they? And close the door when they go to the toilet, right? Of course they've got something to hide...
Well, Epic has made more Unreal Tournament online games than Bungie ever has, and Epic makes more than just UT. Off-topic, but Marathon is open source nowadays. :)
A perfect digital copy of cable shows? Are you serious? With how badly compressed they already are, you're better off downloading them on BitTorrent for the same (or better if their providers are better with compression) quality without the hassle.
Epic has a lot more experience in developing online games. Halo 2 was the first game Bungie developed that incorporated actual online play, and look at how well (or not) they did in relation to other successful online games (e.g., Counter-Strike, Unreal Tournament (an Epic game! oh my!), etc.). Maybe their developers are just still sore that they aren't making Mac-only games anymore? ;p
Or GNOME or KDE for that matter. Hell, he probably doesn't even use any open source systems because you still need some GPL-licensed program (GCC) to make it work, even with systems like OpenBSD.