Maybe because GConf is only a tool to flip switches in human readable xml files..not a registry.
XML is not human-readable, for all the kerfuffle about a different file format for samba and nfs and so on I'd take any and all of them over XML any day. And can a human even find the XML? Can the apps use it without the gconf interface? MS could make the registry backend XML tomorrow, I suspect the only reason they don't is efficiency. But it wouldn't make any difference, all the problems we have would still be there. And gnome is introducing the same problems.
Are these software companies simply selling a product and should not be concerned with how it is used or are they contributing to the problems of these repressive regimes?"
Are they selling their product as a censorship product, or as something with multiple uses? Are there "good" uses for products like theirs?
And just because you choose realism, that doesn't say much about the visual style or flair of your game. The vast majority of photography is realistic, and no one would argue that all photographers have the same style.
I would argue that. Maybe it's my lack of culture, but I've never seen two photographs that differ as much as (for example) a photograph and a Cubist painting.
When was the last time you heard a good song out of (for example) Poland? I can understand the Poles worrying that a unified european authority would only fund French pop and German techno and young Polish bands wouldn't get anything.
Yeah, because we all know a small portable device with non-replaceable batteries that died after a bit would be a complete failure in the marketplace. Oh, wait.
I know you can use Bluetooth to transfer photos between Zire 72s...I don't know about mainstreem wifi, though. I'd imagine that working with MP3s would depend on the application you used to manage them.
SMB and UPNP make a horrible lowest common denominator that would nevertheless work with just about everything.
Mac zealots use AAC because it's the default format for importing music into iTunes. It is to the Mac community what WMA is to the Windows zealot community.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with AAC, just that it's in basically the same situation as OGG - technically superior to MP3, a generally good format, but noone cares outside a small zealot community.
The post you link to is moderated +5 for a reason. This is slashdot, not a user conference or something like that. Enormous flamewars between people neither of whom actually knows what they're talking about are the norm here. Propriety software makers talking about their products here don't exhibit any more restraint. And true professionalism means telling an idiot when he's being an idiot, not yes-manning the customer because they're the customer. That's what unscrupulous profiteers do.
And yes, I personally miss features like displaying which song you're currently listening too, and heck, since the latest MSN version I can't even see their "mood" anymore...
There are now playing plugins for both gaim and kopete, kopete ships with one, and in kopete at least the "mood" is in the tooltip.
It gets out of my way, isn't all flashy and has all the things I want (on the fly spell checking, history in new windows, etc).
Those are both features that are certainly in kopete and I'd be amazed if they weren't in gaim as well. If you like the adium chat window look you can tell kopete to look like that, the contact list always looks the same but that's so it fits into the desktop, better than one of these skinnable programs that does't fit in with anything else. (IMO of course)
Is that how they would set it up, or would it be worse, and any one of the twenty five could wreck things?
I don't think so, the EU has always run so far on the basis that no action is ever taken unless all the member countries agree, including things like removing a subsidy that's currently in place. Now with the enlarged membership it's getting worryingly near to the point where this means the EU can never do anything, so part of the whole constitution issue was whether this should be changed to a certain proportion or even just a simple majority of member states, but I can't imagine it ever being the case that a single state or even a small group could change EU policy without convincing the others.
What do you think China, North Korea, Iran, etc will be pushing for once they have a little bit more say?
What do you think the US will be pushing for? Look at the DMCA, look at the number of christian fundamentalists. We leftist Europeans, rightly or wrongly, believe we're more likely to remain free than you are. We don't want our freedom to be dependent on that of the US.
And if we decide to nuke Europe, there's no stopping us there, either.
And that's why as a matter of policy, the UK and France maintain their own nuclear arsenals.
Seriously, as the GP asked, without resorting to general complaints, is there a reason to believe that we would do something abusive with the internet?
The astonishing amount of power that Christian fundamentalists have in your country. I can easily see the US wanting to not let people have domains for "unchristian" things.
Again, the problem with the general complaints, is that it seems that if we're as crazy as we're accused of being (and I'll admit that the foam at the mouth doesn't help), then why is the internet the object being protected? Wouldn't it make more sense for France to start building up their nuclear arsenal if they're really that frightened of what we might do?
We're expecting you to regress into mediaeval times any time now. You won't have enough organisation or technology to come over the atlantic and affect us, so we just want to make sure you can't do any damage to our way of life from where you are.
At all costs, they must be prevented from claiming the spurious moral high ground! Confront them with the question: what would you change? And, why not go through process at ICANN? What would you want to do, that they would refuse? And why?
I do not trust the US to maintain the free flow of information in the future. This is a country that voted for the candidate it believed would protect religious values over the one that it believed would protect free speech. I think an international body is more capable of doing it.
So the EU would be a better overlord of DNS? I don't see how that works.
An international body would be better than a national one. For the US to impose bad things on the internet it only takes one country to fall to a fundamentalist theocracy or whatever. For the EU to do it it would take at least 13 countries, until a new constitution arrives you'd need all 25. A truly international body like the UN (please don't start yelling FUD, the US attempts to discredit the UN would be amusing if they weren't so pathetic) would be better than either though.
You can love or hate the US and the current administration, but over the last two-plus centuries, pray tell what other major country has done more to promote free speech?... The UN, where every crackpot dictator and totalitarian asshole is given a voice alongside the democratically elected crackpots and assholes?
I wish there was something I could say to mock your comment, but really, there's no way I could surpass how it is already.
Slashdot Mirror
Way to take the humour out of the joke by explaining it there dude.
XML is not human-readable, for all the kerfuffle about a different file format for samba and nfs and so on I'd take any and all of them over XML any day. And can a human even find the XML? Can the apps use it without the gconf interface? MS could make the registry backend XML tomorrow, I suspect the only reason they don't is efficiency. But it wouldn't make any difference, all the problems we have would still be there. And gnome is introducing the same problems.
No, you don't.
What fix should MS implement that will prevent a browser plugin installer from also putting in a spam relay?
Make a browser that works so it doesn't need plugins, and get rid of the installer.
Are they selling their product as a censorship product, or as something with multiple uses? Are there "good" uses for products like theirs?
Any true computer person will know the importance of preventative maintenance.
I would argue that. Maybe it's my lack of culture, but I've never seen two photographs that differ as much as (for example) a photograph and a Cubist painting.
When was the last time you heard a good song out of (for example) Poland? I can understand the Poles worrying that a unified european authority would only fund French pop and German techno and young Polish bands wouldn't get anything.
Yeah, because we all know a small portable device with non-replaceable batteries that died after a bit would be a complete failure in the marketplace. Oh, wait.
SMB and UPNP make a horrible lowest common denominator that would nevertheless work with just about everything.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with AAC, just that it's in basically the same situation as OGG - technically superior to MP3, a generally good format, but noone cares outside a small zealot community.
The post you link to is moderated +5 for a reason. This is slashdot, not a user conference or something like that. Enormous flamewars between people neither of whom actually knows what they're talking about are the norm here. Propriety software makers talking about their products here don't exhibit any more restraint. And true professionalism means telling an idiot when he's being an idiot, not yes-manning the customer because they're the customer. That's what unscrupulous profiteers do.
Only mac zealots use AAC but apple implemets support for that.
I prefer centericq, a direct client with support for loads of protocols, plus things like livejournal and rss feeds.
There are now playing plugins for both gaim and kopete, kopete ships with one, and in kopete at least the "mood" is in the tooltip.
Those are both features that are certainly in kopete and I'd be amazed if they weren't in gaim as well. If you like the adium chat window look you can tell kopete to look like that, the contact list always looks the same but that's so it fits into the desktop, better than one of these skinnable programs that does't fit in with anything else. (IMO of course)
How the fuck is this modertated offtopic when it's precisely the topic under discussion?
Then I'd finally be able to get a first post.
I don't think so, the EU has always run so far on the basis that no action is ever taken unless all the member countries agree, including things like removing a subsidy that's currently in place. Now with the enlarged membership it's getting worryingly near to the point where this means the EU can never do anything, so part of the whole constitution issue was whether this should be changed to a certain proportion or even just a simple majority of member states, but I can't imagine it ever being the case that a single state or even a small group could change EU policy without convincing the others.
Erm, that's entirely accurate. Lots of people call anything of the sort spyware, even if all it does is display ads. That's linguistic shift for you.
What do you think the US will be pushing for? Look at the DMCA, look at the number of christian fundamentalists. We leftist Europeans, rightly or wrongly, believe we're more likely to remain free than you are. We don't want our freedom to be dependent on that of the US.
And that's why as a matter of policy, the UK and France maintain their own nuclear arsenals.
Seriously, as the GP asked, without resorting to general complaints, is there a reason to believe that we would do something abusive with the internet?
The astonishing amount of power that Christian fundamentalists have in your country. I can easily see the US wanting to not let people have domains for "unchristian" things.
Again, the problem with the general complaints, is that it seems that if we're as crazy as we're accused of being (and I'll admit that the foam at the mouth doesn't help), then why is the internet the object being protected? Wouldn't it make more sense for France to start building up their nuclear arsenal if they're really that frightened of what we might do?
We're expecting you to regress into mediaeval times any time now. You won't have enough organisation or technology to come over the atlantic and affect us, so we just want to make sure you can't do any damage to our way of life from where you are.
I do not trust the US to maintain the free flow of information in the future. This is a country that voted for the candidate it believed would protect religious values over the one that it believed would protect free speech. I think an international body is more capable of doing it.
An international body would be better than a national one. For the US to impose bad things on the internet it only takes one country to fall to a fundamentalist theocracy or whatever. For the EU to do it it would take at least 13 countries, until a new constitution arrives you'd need all 25. A truly international body like the UN (please don't start yelling FUD, the US attempts to discredit the UN would be amusing if they weren't so pathetic) would be better than either though.
*cough*VeriSign Sitefinder*cough*
I wish there was something I could say to mock your comment, but really, there's no way I could surpass how it is already.