Teachers *not* being power hungry? I know more teachers than I care to and the vast majority of them do seem to have problems with their (perceived) power.
I haven't been in an educational institution for many years and teachers, for some reason, still feel the need to lean over and watch as I write. They also seem to have to point out if they think I am doing something wrong (in their eyes). I usually humour them because it takes to long to point out to them that I've been doing my job (and doing it well) for a long time.
I am not sure if they have developed this way because they are so insulated from the outside world (many have not had any other job other than teaching), or possibly because they get to tell other people/students what to do all day long. Maybe because of this they also get quite upset when corrected about even very small things (I try to avoid it if at all possible).
That said there are some good teachers out there. Those that teach people how to *think* for themselves, rather than think like themselves or to get students to mindlessly remember useless things. If anyone has had the unfortunate task of trying to recruit staff fresh out of school (or any educational institution) then you know what I mean (it's as if they are all borg) Once out of school the stuff learnt there is essentially useless, it's the ability to think for yourself and inititative that are the real skills.
They are not asking for submissions on the whole of the copyright act, *only* submissions on the issue of "fair use". I doubt that they will consider anything else. (It would be nice though)
In fact I doubt that Rudd will consider *anything*. He is *proud* of the extensions to the 1968 copyright act. These committiees as far as I can see are *only* set up to appease the public, they don't actually achieve anything and do not consider public submissions worthwhile.
What difference will it make anyway? The general Australia public don't give a flying fuck what the law says (decedents of criminals etc), everyone records and time shifts anyway.
That said, here are some links for anybody interested:
They need to provide something to gain peoples trust back, which will either be very creative or take a immense amount of time. This move alone is just PR, and probably doesn't indicate anything. Even if it does, HP will still have to work for years to gain peoples trust.
This is not directed at you specifically, but a lot of people seem to be not thinking (at all) before they post. HP, on one hand donate a not-insignificant amount to the open-source community (eg the recent/. article on kernel.org) and HP are the *only* company that I can find that supports open-source drivers for their muti-function printers (hpoj, hpijs etc).
Saying that it will take "years" for them to regain trust is pretty harsh. Apparently/. has a great number of perfect people who have never said or done anything wrong or that they regret, to be slagging HP so much. This was a very small thing that was corrected pretty quickly. This flamebait article only degrades my already suffereing opinion of slashdot and I must have been living under a rock while the world solved all it's real peoblems that this small issue is now such a big thing.
As much as I would also like to think that a human life is worth more than a router my eyes tell me another story. I have watched people die (and cause others to) for much less: because they wanted to get home 5 minutes quicker (speeding), becuase they couldn't be bothered to walk 20m to a crossing (got hit by a truck), another who, because they did something without thinking, got their brain mashed as a result. I've seen mothers who, when crossing the road use their pram (with baby inside) as some sort of protection device, sticking it out in traffic to get cars to stop.
Ask anyone in emergency services what their first priority is on a job and they will (or should) tell you that it is themselves. They have seen enough people die to know what it's worth.
I have basically had the same opinion for a while, but please, given that you have lived in OZ and the USA what makes them fear the commies so much? I am aware of the McCarthy(?) trials etc but still that was a while ago now and they still can't seem to over it already...
They'd also no longer receive any royalties on his works themselves. Once the copywright was expired ANYONE could publish the book.
Yea verily.
Latest Stephan King trash RRP = $65 AU public domain classics RRP = $4.95 AU *Leather bound* classics or the *complete* works of W. Shakespeare RRP = $9.95
come to canada instead - all of the beauty - none of the ph34r
Thank you I think I will:-) Honestly, most people I know don't see the USA as a place to go anymore, Canada on the the other hand is doing everything right...
Maybe it's just me, that's a possibility, but I don't understand people's fascination with these kinds of services. Blogging, bookmark sharing, it all seems to me like a cry for attention from other people.
I find your ideas on this subject interesting and would like to subscribe to your newsletter, or perhaps you have a blog?;-)
That annoys me so much I could strangle a manatee in the nude.
Hold on, do you mean *you* want to be naked while doing the strangling or you want the *manatee* to be naked? Is this some new form of street art that I am just not aware of?
A friend of mine ran crack over/etc/passwd on his physics department's unix system, successfully cracking 20% of the passwords on file. He sent the results to his sysadmin, with a note asking the sysadmin to implement crack system-wide, and was promptly reprimanded.
Interesting. In the past as a student & employee of a uni I found a method of finding the default staff email passwords simply by viewing the staff information pages on the public website. But do you think they did anything about it... Well, if you can't guess they didn't.
I'll tell you all now, I'm a Winodws developer and I write C# code. For us Windows devs, no one uses Java anymore; if you do, it's for support of an existing product. Virtually all new projects are.NET-based or native code. So if you, the open source community, cause more fuss over Java and whine about using it, then Microsoft has truely succeeded in it's FUD plan over Java.
So, on one hand, *you* don't use Java but if *we* "the open source community cause more fuss over Java" then *we* would be responsible for MS winning their FUD campaign? So while it's OK for you not to use it, we have to, that's essentially what your saying isn't it? Just who is spreading the FUD again?
In any case I would prefer to think that Java should stand, or fall, on it's own merits. If the OSS community do not like the new direction openoffice.org is taking in requireing Java we can stop using it and, say, fork it so that it *does* meet our needs. The parallels between openoffice.org and XFree/X.org are interesting here...
[sarcasm]I have to agree here. IE and ActiveX is where web development is heading. I am confident that Microsoft will continue to support IE long into the future and will not drop support for it at an arbitrary time, like when something more profitable comes along or they change focus and my business is OK with that. I don't see that I will have any problems migrating my data away from any of their closed formats that I might be using, I won't have any problems updating their product with security patches, new features etc etc.[/sarcasm]
But, on the other hand there is a reason I am writing a point of sale system with mysql and gtk on Debian: 1. I can be confident that the system I am using is totally open to my every whim. 2. I can implement whatever feature I need/want. 3. My data will be in a format *I* want, and open to me for as long as it exists. 4. I can have an operating system/distro which suits my business (and not arrange my business to suit somebody else's product). (I am surprised at list of software I have patched/modified to behave the way *I* want and I am not even a great programmer). 5. I *own* my system in every sense of the word, one can only "license" a MS product for a non-specific amount of time.
I have been using Linux for seven years and still find new things and new ways of doing things. The flexibility and abilities are apparently endless, not last week I built my own very small distro just for kicks in an existing install, a single file including it's own filesystem and linux distro which I loopback mounted and chrooted to work on/run. After all these years I am still grateful I don't have to use inferior products anymore. I haven't even begun to touch on stuff like virtual machines but they look... well they are just amazing:-)
Just think: People all around the world are working/developing on some great stuff *right now* , the possibilities truly are only limited only by *us* and not some company who mandates how/what we can do.
Origin don't exist anymore, they were officially swallowed by EA last year(?). Origin was sold to EA in 1992(?), somewhere after Ultima 7 PII and before ULtima 8 IIRC.
And while we are on the topic Freelancer (Microsoft) is such an obvious knock off of Privateer and Origin didn't do anything then... Freelancer is a decent game, but Privateer wins because of the nostalgia factor:-)
Yes, it's all true. If your not making multi-billion dollar profits and increasing that profit by 10% per year you aren't a "healthy" company. That's why they need to stop generic AIDS medicine from being using in Africa, Asia and every other bloody country. We in the western world can usually afford to pay high prices for medicine, and it's just fair to expect other countries to pay the same high prices even if they have been struggling to repay their 1st world debt for the past fifty years (and the next fifty and the next etc).
See, it's not that they want people to die, thay just have to "protect their investment" and if that comes at a cost of a few million prople dying then I m sure you will agree that it is worth it.
Now, it's the same case with open source, there are no companies using open source to make a profit, oh wait there is RedHat... Wait, I will try that again: Business, especially small business will never use Linux because it has a lower cost of ownership , no wait *I* am using Linux for it's low TCO. Big business, like IBM and Novell will never touch Linux... bugger. OK what I *can* say for sure is that Linux will never become mainsteam because it is flexible, has a lower TCO, can do all the cool stuff, is secure, reliable and so portable! We need patent protection which hampers^W *protects* innovation because, er, we need to make sure profits^W security is a ongoing process in plces like Microsft.
So to sum up my argument if Microsft and others can't compete un^H^Hfairly with free software then it will all turn out bad because, er, people don't appreciate what they don't pay high prices^W^W for. I rest my case.
Honestly this is very suprising to me. I own and run a small business and people try and scam us all the time. Examples include dodgy telephone directory listings, website hosting, domain hosting, overpriced stock and people just generally phoning us and trying to sell us every piece of crap under the sun. This is not just scammers, it's also local sporting groups, charities, schools, churches etc all seem to think we are here for their sole benifit. It never seems to occur to any of them that we get asked ten times a day to hand over money for no benifit to us. It sounds like I am bitter, but I'm not, this is just reality.
I don't mind donating, I give time and money every week to several organsisations (of *my* choice), but most of them have never even been a customer before.
So actually thinking about each and ever deal/agreement I make has become second nature, it's easy to tell when somebody is trying to scam you really. If people start asking intimate questions: "who do you have your telephone with? it's a scam. If they ask "are you the owner of this business" and then ask *another* question about the business it's a scam.
If they really had anything to do with your business they don't need to ask who you are, because they already know.
If we graphed various companies and their niceness over time, I wonder if it could be turned into some sort of mathematical forumula (like Nash's game theory or something). Or may be it might just make a pretty picture:-)
I think apprentice type learning should have a much bigger place in learning and at an earlier age. It took me years to un-learn the crap and narrow minded thinking I was foced into during high school. Now, with my own business I am looking to employ other people but all I can find are drones. I don't need employee's with great maths skills or who scored high on some test. I need cheerful people with enthusiam, people who can do things and think things through by themselves. They don't exist it's only endless rows of immature "what do I do now?" mommies boys/girls.
In past emplyment I have worked with people who are enthusastic but don't know very much and people who know a lot but don't give a shit. I'd work with the enthusiastic people every time, but there aren't many of them out there...
Furthermore, Excel (every scientists best friend), is still far and away the best spreadsheet application and to me is Window's so called "killer app"
Dare I mention gnumeric? http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnumeric/ I've had no problems exchanging files between gnuermic and excel. Best of all I use some pretty big and complex sheets and while gnumeric takes a little while to load them excel takes forever.
I have also heard elsewhere that gnumeric double checks it's caclulations (and that excel doesn't), which would make gnumeric all the more accurate. (I don't have link for you sorry).
Er... because price collusion is perfectly legal and ethical.
Is it really? I assume you are from the USA? In Australia price fixing is very much illegal (also in the UK I think).
Even if it is not illegal, could you please explain why you think it is ethical?
Incidentally, it always makes me laugh when suppliers try and make me price something at what *they* want (usually with the end result that they make big $$$ and I would make virtually nothing).
Maybe your being sarcastic but the "Insightful" mod makes me have my doubts.
Mate to just get *nominated* you have to say something like: " Just having a break from my *own* party to check/. and start a kernel compile (with self-made patches). I hope I haven't made any coding errors being drunk and with all the noise. The fish-net stockings and PVC barbie outfit don't help either. It would be nice if the plebs (including girlfriend) leaning in the window asking "wtf is all that gobbledegook running down the screen" actually did want to know the answer (in detail) instead of trying to hint "get back to the party" but it's not so bad. "
See the vital elements there? mention the kernel compile and coding for the geek factor, the girlfriend for envy and something embarrassing to make you look approachable. Of course don't forget the beer. Better luck next time...
There is a fellow in OZ who compiled a songs using telephone tones. His creation: Songs consisting of every telephone number of every Australian citizen. By dialing any phone number you are breaking copyright:-)
Slashdot Mirror
Teachers *not* being power hungry? I know more teachers than I care to and the vast majority of them do seem to have problems with their (perceived) power.
I haven't been in an educational institution for many years and teachers, for some reason, still feel the need to lean over and watch as I write. They also seem to have to point out if they think I am doing something wrong (in their eyes). I usually humour them because it takes to long to point out to them that I've been doing my job (and doing it well) for a long time.
I am not sure if they have developed this way because they are so insulated from the outside world (many have not had any other job other than teaching), or possibly because they get to tell other people/students what to do all day long. Maybe because of this they also get quite upset when corrected about even very small things (I try to avoid it if at all possible).
That said there are some good teachers out there. Those that teach people how to *think* for themselves, rather than think like themselves or to get students to mindlessly remember useless things. If anyone has had the unfortunate task of trying to recruit staff fresh out of school (or any educational institution) then you know what I mean (it's as if they are all borg) Once out of school the stuff learnt there is essentially useless, it's the ability to think for yourself and inititative that are the real skills.
"Government... becomes a joke."
Objection! It's been a joke since 1901.
1) faster expiration.
They are not asking for submissions on the whole of the copyright act, *only* submissions on the issue of "fair use". I doubt that they will consider anything else. (It would be nice though)
In fact I doubt that Rudd will consider *anything*. He is *proud* of the extensions to the 1968 copyright act. These committiees as far as I can see are *only* set up to appease the public, they don't actually achieve anything and do not consider public submissions worthwhile.
What difference will it make anyway? The general Australia public don't give a flying fuck what the law says (decedents of criminals etc), everyone records and time shifts anyway.
That said, here are some links for anybody interested:
Copyright and Contract - your rights
Australian copyright law (origins of)
Review to Consider When it's Fair to Copy
copyright.org.au
They need to provide something to gain peoples trust back, which will either be very creative or take a immense amount of time. This move alone is just PR, and probably doesn't indicate anything. Even if it does, HP will still have to work for years to gain peoples trust.
/. article on kernel.org) and HP are the *only* company that I can find that supports open-source drivers for their muti-function printers (hpoj, hpijs etc).
/. has a great number of perfect people who have never said or done anything wrong or that they regret, to be slagging HP so much. This was a very small thing that was corrected pretty quickly. This flamebait article only degrades my already suffereing opinion of slashdot and I must have been living under a rock while the world solved all it's real peoblems that this small issue is now such a big thing.
This is not directed at you specifically, but a lot of people seem to be not thinking (at all) before they post. HP, on one hand donate a not-insignificant amount to the open-source community (eg the recent
Saying that it will take "years" for them to regain trust is pretty harsh. Apparently
As much as I would also like to think that a human life is worth more than a router my eyes tell me another story. I have watched people die (and cause others to) for much less: because they wanted to get home 5 minutes quicker (speeding), becuase they couldn't be bothered to walk 20m to a crossing (got hit by a truck), another who, because they did something without thinking, got their brain mashed as a result. I've seen mothers who, when crossing the road use their pram (with baby inside) as some sort of protection device, sticking it out in traffic to get cars to stop.
Ask anyone in emergency services what their first priority is on a job and they will (or should) tell you that it is themselves. They have seen enough people die to know what it's worth.
I have basically had the same opinion for a while, but please, given that you have lived in OZ and the USA what makes them fear the commies so much? I am aware of the McCarthy(?) trials etc but still that was a while ago now and they still can't seem to over it already...
They'd also no longer receive any royalties on his works themselves. Once the copywright was expired ANYONE could publish the book.
Yea verily.
Latest Stephan King trash RRP = $65 AU
public domain classics RRP = $4.95 AU
*Leather bound* classics or the *complete* works of W. Shakespeare RRP = $9.95
come to canada instead - all of the beauty - none of the ph34r
:-) Honestly, most people I know don't see the USA as a place to go anymore, Canada on the the other hand is doing everything right...
Thank you I think I will
Maybe it's just me, that's a possibility, but I don't understand people's fascination with these kinds of services. Blogging, bookmark sharing, it all seems to me like a cry for attention from other people.
;-)
I find your ideas on this subject interesting and would like to subscribe to your newsletter, or perhaps you have a blog?
That annoys me so much I could strangle a manatee in the nude.
Hold on, do you mean *you* want to be naked while doing the strangling or you want the *manatee* to be naked? Is this some new form of street art that I am just not aware of?
A friend of mine ran crack over /etc/passwd on his physics department's unix system, successfully cracking 20% of the passwords on file. He sent the results to his sysadmin, with a note asking the sysadmin to implement crack system-wide, and was promptly reprimanded.
Interesting. In the past as a student & employee of a uni I found a method of finding the default staff email passwords simply by viewing the staff information pages on the public website. But do you think they did anything about it... Well, if you can't guess they didn't.
I'll tell you all now, I'm a Winodws developer and I write C# code. For us Windows devs, no one uses Java anymore; if you do, it's for support of an existing product. Virtually all new projects are .NET-based or native code. So if you, the open source community, cause more fuss over Java and whine about using it, then Microsoft has truely succeeded in it's FUD plan over Java.
So, on one hand, *you* don't use Java but if *we* "the open source community cause more fuss over Java" then *we* would be responsible for MS winning their FUD campaign? So while it's OK for you not to use it, we have to, that's essentially what your saying isn't it? Just who is spreading the FUD again?
In any case I would prefer to think that Java should stand, or fall, on it's own merits. If the OSS community do not like the new direction openoffice.org is taking in requireing Java we can stop using it and, say, fork it so that it *does* meet our needs. The parallels between openoffice.org and XFree/X.org are interesting here...
[sarcasm]I have to agree here. IE and ActiveX is where web development is heading. I am confident that Microsoft will continue to support IE long into the future and will not drop support for it at an arbitrary time, like when something more profitable comes along or they change focus and my business is OK with that. I don't see that I will have any problems migrating my data away from any of their closed formats that I might be using, I won't have any problems updating their product with security patches, new features etc etc.[/sarcasm]
:-)
But, on the other hand there is a reason I am writing a point of sale system with mysql and gtk on Debian:
1. I can be confident that the system I am using is totally open to my every whim.
2. I can implement whatever feature I need/want.
3. My data will be in a format *I* want, and open to me for as long as it exists.
4. I can have an operating system/distro which suits my business (and not arrange my business to suit somebody else's product). (I am surprised at list of software I have patched/modified to behave the way *I* want and I am not even a great programmer).
5. I *own* my system in every sense of the word, one can only "license" a MS product for a non-specific amount of time.
I have been using Linux for seven years and still find new things and new ways of doing things. The flexibility and abilities are apparently endless, not last week I built my own very small distro just for kicks in an existing install, a single file including it's own filesystem and linux distro which I loopback mounted and chrooted to work on/run. After all these years I am still grateful I don't have to use inferior products anymore. I haven't even begun to touch on stuff like virtual machines but they look... well they are just amazing
Just think: People all around the world are working/developing on some great stuff *right now* , the possibilities truly are only limited only by *us* and not some company who mandates how/what we can do.
What do you really think the Australian government gets for being our lapdog?
We get more attention from "terrorists" and fridge magnets(*).
(*) Apparently, they protect us from terrorism. No, I don't understand how either.
The other side of the story (which isn't to say companies don't suck):
http://www.customerssuck.com/
Origin don't exist anymore, they were officially swallowed by EA last year(?). Origin was sold to EA in 1992(?), somewhere after Ultima 7 PII and before ULtima 8 IIRC.
:-)
And while we are on the topic Freelancer (Microsoft) is such an obvious knock off of Privateer and Origin didn't do anything then... Freelancer is a decent game, but Privateer wins because of the nostalgia factor
Yes, it's all true. If your not making multi-billion dollar profits and increasing that profit by 10% per year you aren't a "healthy" company. That's why they need to stop generic AIDS medicine from being using in Africa, Asia and every other bloody country. We in the western world can usually afford to pay high prices for medicine, and it's just fair to expect other countries to pay the same high prices even if they have been struggling to repay their 1st world debt for the past fifty years (and the next fifty and the next etc).
See, it's not that they want people to die, thay just have to "protect their investment" and if that comes at a cost of a few million prople dying then I m sure you will agree that it is worth it.
Now, it's the same case with open source, there are no companies using open source to make a profit, oh wait there is RedHat... Wait, I will try that again: Business, especially small business will never use Linux because it has a lower cost of ownership , no wait *I* am using Linux for it's low TCO. Big business, like IBM and Novell will never touch Linux... bugger. OK what I *can* say for sure is that Linux will never become mainsteam because it is flexible, has a lower TCO, can do all the cool stuff, is secure, reliable and so portable! We need patent protection which hampers^W *protects* innovation because, er, we need to make sure profits^W security is a ongoing process in plces like Microsft.
So to sum up my argument if Microsft and others can't compete un^H^Hfairly with free software then it will all turn out bad because, er, people don't appreciate what they don't pay high prices^W^W for. I rest my case.
Honestly this is very suprising to me. I own and run a small business and people try and scam us all the time. Examples include dodgy telephone directory listings, website hosting, domain hosting, overpriced stock and people just generally phoning us and trying to sell us every piece of crap under the sun. This is not just scammers, it's also local sporting groups, charities, schools, churches etc all seem to think we are here for their sole benifit. It never seems to occur to any of them that we get asked ten times a day to hand over money for no benifit to us. It sounds like I am bitter, but I'm not, this is just reality.
I don't mind donating, I give time and money every week to several organsisations (of *my* choice), but most of them have never even been a customer before.
So actually thinking about each and ever deal/agreement I make has become second nature, it's easy to tell when somebody is trying to scam you really. If people start asking intimate questions: "who do you have your telephone with? it's a scam. If they ask "are you the owner of this business" and then ask *another* question about the business it's a scam.
If they really had anything to do with your business they don't need to ask who you are, because they already know.
the same kind of country that will let you fight and die at 18, but wont let you drink till 21.
That's because drinking is bad for your health, but being shot by a bunch of people who don't want you in their country is idio^W patriotic.
If we graphed various companies and their niceness over time, I wonder if it could be turned into some sort of mathematical forumula (like Nash's game theory or something). Or may be it might just make a pretty picture :-)
I think apprentice type learning should have a much bigger place in learning and at an earlier age. It took me years to un-learn the crap and narrow minded thinking I was foced into during high school. Now, with my own business I am looking to employ other people but all I can find are drones. I don't need employee's with great maths skills or who scored high on some test. I need cheerful people with enthusiam, people who can do things and think things through by themselves. They don't exist it's only endless rows of immature "what do I do now?" mommies boys/girls.
In past emplyment I have worked with people who are enthusastic but don't know very much and people who know a lot but don't give a shit. I'd work with the enthusiastic people every time, but there aren't many of them out there...
Furthermore, Excel (every scientists best friend), is still far and away the best spreadsheet application and to me is Window's so called "killer app"
Dare I mention gnumeric? http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnumeric/ I've had no problems exchanging files between gnuermic and excel. Best of all I use some pretty big and complex sheets and while gnumeric takes a little while to load them excel takes forever.
I have also heard elsewhere that gnumeric double checks it's caclulations (and that excel doesn't), which would make gnumeric all the more accurate. (I don't have link for you sorry).
Er... because price collusion is perfectly legal and ethical.
Is it really? I assume you are from the USA? In Australia price fixing is very much illegal (also in the UK I think).
Even if it is not illegal, could you please explain why you think it is ethical?
Incidentally, it always makes me laugh when suppliers try and make me price something at what *they* want (usually with the end result that they make big $$$ and I would make virtually nothing).
Maybe your being sarcastic but the "Insightful" mod makes me have my doubts.
Mate to just get *nominated* you have to say something like: /. and start a kernel compile (with self-made patches). I hope I haven't made any coding errors being drunk and with all the noise. The fish-net stockings and PVC barbie outfit don't help either. It would be nice if the plebs (including girlfriend) leaning in the window asking "wtf is all that gobbledegook running down the screen" actually did want to know the answer (in detail) instead of trying to hint "get back to the party" but it's not so bad.
"
Just having a break from my *own* party to check
"
See the vital elements there? mention the kernel compile and coding for the geek factor, the girlfriend for envy and something embarrassing to make you look approachable. Of course don't forget the beer. Better luck next time...
There is a fellow in OZ who compiled a songs using telephone tones. His creation: Songs consisting of every telephone number of every Australian citizen. By dialing any phone number you are breaking copyright :-)
But I have lost the link... Does anybody have it?