Who said we were talking about C? I'll go for a Hello World in Whitespace.:-p VIM even has syntax highlighting for it! And as far as I can see, Whitespace has never had a single security patch applied to it.:-p
That's what I mean... As I said, to some extent I think it's alright they do this (the cracking of the scammers). My concern is that the trend spreads and someone crosses the thin line between good and bad vigilante-hood? (
E.g.: Will some RIAA/MPAA-fanboys start hammering down http://thepiratebay.org/ because what they (TPB) are doing is illegal where the crackers come from? (And no, this is NOT a discussion on whether or not sharing.torrents is legal/illegal, good/bad or anything like that - it's JUST an example.)
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for seeing those scammers get some of what they deserve - I'm merely a bit afraid that the trend will catch on to other areas that some of us actually care about. (Yeah, I'm an insensitive clod - I don't give a hoot about scammers.);-p
Hmm, actually, when I wrote it I wasn't entirely sure of it myself, but after looking it up in my good old Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary I'm a bit more sure (not entirely sure still).
It says: vigi-lancen watchfulness; keeping watch; exercise ~. ~ committee (chiefly US) self-appointed group of persons who maintain order in a community where organization is imperfect of has broken down.
So perhaps: s/kind of vigilance/way of excercising vigilance/g
Btw, I'm not a native speaker - as you might have guessed. Though, I still think most people understood what I tried to say. Hopefully...:)
Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor. He wasn't leading some vigilante lynch mob.
That aside I think it's kind of alright. Not that I think this sort of vigilance is the best solution I can think of - but if nobody else is doing anything about it, then why not let them. But as always, there's an incedibly thin line between this (good) kind of vigilance and the bad kind. Let's hope that it's not a trend that catches on too much.
Similarly for Abiword, that project has consistancy across platforms as a goal, and is also not a gnome project. It does go reasonably out of it's way to play nice with a Gnome environment, however.
I'll say... Abiword is part of
Gnome-Office, so actually I'd say that it is part of Gnome. The Abiword devs may not have developed it specifically for Gnome - but Gnome seems to have expanded "Gnome" to include Abiword.
And your distinction between a GTK-app and a Gnome-app is ridiculous.
As I recall I refered directly to Steve Hamm's blog entry and linked to previous related stories here on/., but nevermind... I just found it weird that they'd prefer the story a couple of days after it was actual news.
But thanks a lot for you clarification - if I could I'd mod it up +1, Informative.:-)
I don't consider the dictionary to be wrong - I consider it an attempt to describe the common meanings of words (i.e. if you look up a word in the dictionary you can be sure that it can have at least the definitions listed there, but that doesn't mean that there's not more to it). For a more reliable/believable source try the language users (ie. people).
RI/MPAA may or may not have started the use of "theft" with this additional meaning - but that doesn't really matter, 'cause it's in the language now. People are using it. Besides, people have been "stealing ideas" from each other for centuries and centuries...
Redefinition of words is quite common, if you're so much of against it I suggest you start looking for new words for "window", "chip", "bookmark" etc...
And how do you compare your little example (of a statement that relies on scientific facts (i.e. can be measured) rather than relying on human definitions) to the fact that some people consider "copying DVDs" to be a theft and other consider it a copyright infringement? And before you consider giving me some dictionary lookup for "theft" - look at my first and second post in this thread... It's already answered there.
And you still didn't explain to me how "copying DVDs" and "stealing ideas" differs in terms of "copyright infringement" vs. "theft"... Actually, now that I think of it - you've pretty much avoided answering to any of my critical points and decided to just give me some ridiculous example sentence that can't even be compared to the whole "theft" vs. "copyright infringement" debate...
And btw., some dictionaries actually has more than one definition of "steal", e.g. "copying sb's work/ideas without permission or consent" - so even if you want to go dictionary-nazi on me your argument won't hold. (Read my first posts in this thread again-again.)
So tell me again... How can it be wrong to use a perfectly acceptable definition of the word "theft" (as in e.g. "identity theft") here?
Hey, I'm not saying that it's one or the other - I'm saying stop the stupid bickering! You can bitch all you want about the semantics but you can't do a damn thing about it! What about stealing an idea or idioms such as to steal the show? That's pretty much the same problem, isn't it? I bet that none of you who's claiming that it's wrong to use the word theft have used that exact word in a situation where it doesn't mean that someone is actually missing an object. (See my former post about identity theft and stolen data - once you answer to those I'll be happy to discuss this with you.)
Please, don't reply until you've actually got an answer for me - instead of the usual "I am right and you're wrong".
Oh yeah, btw... An opinion can't be incorrect... It may not suit you - but that doesn't make it any less valid. I feel terribly sorry for you and the people around you if you can't accept that.
Let me guess... You didn't follow the link, right?
In case you did - I don't think you got the point... My point is that you can bicker about the dictionary definition of a word - but you can't change the way it's used. Below is a copy/paste of the comment I linked to above.
[paste start]
Should you still be clinging to your dictionary definition, then I'd like you to explain commonly used phrases such as:
identity theft
You don't lose your identity because someone knows your SS# and your credit card number and "claims" to be you. At least, if your entire identity is based on relatively few informations, then it's just plain sad.
stolen data
You don't actually lose the stolen data, but someone broke into your system and made copies of the data. (Just look at the whole ChoicePoint incident.)
When will people realize that dictionaries only gives clues about a word-meaning and usage --- they're not in any way the ultimate definition?
It's the language users that form the language, not the other way around! Otherwise you'd have to go back to saying "a napron" instead of "an apron" and "an eekename" instead of "a nickname".
[paste end]
Take it from a linguist - trying to convince people to "use the right words in the right ways" doesn't work! It never has and it never will! Of course you're entitled to your opinion on whether it's theft or infringement - but so is everyone else.
I'm sorry, it may just be me - but what does that have to do with "installing software"? I'm sure we could easilly dish up a lot of flaws in all OSes, but that's just not really the topic here...
This would be great for members of the general public who are looking for an alternative to Windows, don't want to pay for Mac, but are looking for a platform where installing and running software is as easy as on the platform they are used to.
IMO it's way easier to install software on e.g. Debian than it is on Windows - and when it comes to keeping a system up-to-date... Fuhgeddaboudit!
On windows you have to either find the software on some obscure website or have a cdrom with it - and then when you need to update the software, you need to go back to that obscure place again. Fortunately many programs are starting to ship with an "update self" feature - but still...
On my Debian box I simply search the apt repositories I've put in my configuration, when I find the software I want - install it and Debian takes care of the rest. And if I want to update my system... 'apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y'. And if I'm not comfortable with the command line I'll just use a tool such as Synaptic.
I know several non-techy people who has made the switch from Windows to Linux and all of them have been very impressed and delighted with Debian and it's package-system.
Slashdot Mirror
Join Slashdot. :-)
Visit faraway lands.
Meet new people.
Offend them
Profit??? :-p
Free software (GIMP, OpenOffice) is possible with lots of effort if you're an expert.
Heard of NeoOffice/J? If you can't install/run that, then I don't know what you're doing on an OS X box...
As for the GIMP, http://gimp-app.sourceforge.net/ is your friend along with Apple's X11, which is as easy to install as anything else from Apple.
I don't really see the problem here...
And "no configuration options"? C'mon...
"btirtney spears", no, "britnt spears", arg! "breathney spears", I mean, "bitttany spears"...
On a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 is the hardest, I'd say (judging from http://www.google.com/jobs/britney.html) that it's pretty hard. :-p
Both VI(M) and Emacs do LaTeX just fine...
Then they'll have to rename the project to GPeeLFlash. :-p
Hello World uses the C libraries.
Who said we were talking about C? I'll go for a Hello World in Whitespace. :-p VIM even has syntax highlighting for it! And as far as I can see, Whitespace has never had a single security patch applied to it. :-p
That's what I mean... As I said, to some extent I think it's alright they do this (the cracking of the scammers). My concern is that the trend spreads and someone crosses the thin line between good and bad vigilante-hood? ( E.g.: Will some RIAA/MPAA-fanboys start hammering down http://thepiratebay.org/ because what they (TPB) are doing is illegal where the crackers come from? (And no, this is NOT a discussion on whether or not sharing .torrents is legal/illegal, good/bad or anything like that - it's JUST an example.)
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for seeing those scammers get some of what they deserve - I'm merely a bit afraid that the trend will catch on to other areas that some of us actually care about. (Yeah, I'm an insensitive clod - I don't give a hoot about scammers.) ;-p
(Note: The member profiles have since been taken down by Yahoo).
Not including that bit of information could have /.'ed Yahoo!.
Hmm, actually, when I wrote it I wasn't entirely sure of it myself, but after looking it up in my good old Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary I'm a bit more sure (not entirely sure still).
It says: vigi-lance n watchfulness; keeping watch; exercise ~. ~ committee (chiefly US) self-appointed group of persons who maintain order in a community where organization is imperfect of has broken down.
So perhaps: s/kind of vigilance/way of excercising vigilance/g
Btw, I'm not a native speaker - as you might have guessed. Though, I still think most people understood what I tried to say. Hopefully... :)
Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor. He wasn't leading some vigilante lynch mob.
That aside I think it's kind of alright. Not that I think this sort of vigilance is the best solution I can think of - but if nobody else is doing anything about it, then why not let them. But as always, there's an incedibly thin line between this (good) kind of vigilance and the bad kind. Let's hope that it's not a trend that catches on too much.
Hehe, that reminds me of an old joke...
"Do you know why they call Finland the land of the 10,000 isles?"
"No?"
"They don't."
I'm sorry, but if the person telling the joke is dry enough, it's great. But I admit, it's a bit like "tomato/tomato" in text.
No VAXed, not waxed. :-p
And what's with the captchas? Slashdot - no longer for the visually impaired.
Similarly for Abiword, that project has consistancy across platforms as a goal, and is also not a gnome project. It does go reasonably out of it's way to play nice with a Gnome environment, however.
I'll say... Abiword is part of Gnome-Office, so actually I'd say that it is part of Gnome. The Abiword devs may not have developed it specifically for Gnome - but Gnome seems to have expanded "Gnome" to include Abiword.
And your distinction between a GTK-app and a Gnome-app is ridiculous.
How can that be Offtopic? It's further information that shows that this story is not "news" per say.
If anything it's +/-0 Meta-discussion.
As I recall I refered directly to Steve Hamm's blog entry and linked to previous related stories here on /., but nevermind... I just found it weird that they'd prefer the story a couple of days after it was actual news.
But thanks a lot for you clarification - if I could I'd mod it up +1, Informative. :-)
I thought I'd seen it all on slashdot and along comes this +2, Flamebait moderation...
The Truth about Linux and Windows - Saturday April 23, @04:47PM - Rejected
The above is from my profile page here on /. Apparently they prefer to be a couple of days late with the news.
I don't consider the dictionary to be wrong - I consider it an attempt to describe the common meanings of words (i.e. if you look up a word in the dictionary you can be sure that it can have at least the definitions listed there, but that doesn't mean that there's not more to it). For a more reliable/believable source try the language users (ie. people).
RI/MPAA may or may not have started the use of "theft" with this additional meaning - but that doesn't really matter, 'cause it's in the language now. People are using it. Besides, people have been "stealing ideas" from each other for centuries and centuries...
Redefinition of words is quite common, if you're so much of against it I suggest you start looking for new words for "window", "chip", "bookmark" etc...
And how do you compare your little example (of a statement that relies on scientific facts (i.e. can be measured) rather than relying on human definitions) to the fact that some people consider "copying DVDs" to be a theft and other consider it a copyright infringement? And before you consider giving me some dictionary lookup for "theft" - look at my first and second post in this thread... It's already answered there.
And you still didn't explain to me how "copying DVDs" and "stealing ideas" differs in terms of "copyright infringement" vs. "theft"... Actually, now that I think of it - you've pretty much avoided answering to any of my critical points and decided to just give me some ridiculous example sentence that can't even be compared to the whole "theft" vs. "copyright infringement" debate...
And btw., some dictionaries actually has more than one definition of "steal", e.g. "copying sb's work/ideas without permission or consent" - so even if you want to go dictionary-nazi on me your argument won't hold. (Read my first posts in this thread again-again.)
So tell me again... How can it be wrong to use a perfectly acceptable definition of the word "theft" (as in e.g. "identity theft") here?
Hey, I'm not saying that it's one or the other - I'm saying stop the stupid bickering! You can bitch all you want about the semantics but you can't do a damn thing about it! What about stealing an idea or idioms such as to steal the show? That's pretty much the same problem, isn't it? I bet that none of you who's claiming that it's wrong to use the word theft have used that exact word in a situation where it doesn't mean that someone is actually missing an object. (See my former post about identity theft and stolen data - once you answer to those I'll be happy to discuss this with you.)
Please, don't reply until you've actually got an answer for me - instead of the usual "I am right and you're wrong".
Oh yeah, btw... An opinion can't be incorrect... It may not suit you - but that doesn't make it any less valid. I feel terribly sorry for you and the people around you if you can't accept that.
Let me guess... You didn't follow the link, right?
In case you did - I don't think you got the point... My point is that you can bicker about the dictionary definition of a word - but you can't change the way it's used. Below is a copy/paste of the comment I linked to above.
[paste start]
Should you still be clinging to your dictionary definition, then I'd like you to explain commonly used phrases such as:
You don't lose your identity because someone knows your SS# and your credit card number and "claims" to be you. At least, if your entire identity is based on relatively few informations, then it's just plain sad.
You don't actually lose the stolen data, but someone broke into your system and made copies of the data. (Just look at the whole ChoicePoint incident.)
When will people realize that dictionaries only gives clues about a word-meaning and usage --- they're not in any way the ultimate definition?
It's the language users that form the language, not the other way around! Otherwise you'd have to go back to saying "a napron" instead of "an apron" and "an eekename" instead of "a nickname".
[paste end]
Take it from a linguist - trying to convince people to "use the right words in the right ways" doesn't work! It never has and it never will! Of course you're entitled to your opinion on whether it's theft or infringement - but so is everyone else.
Jesus! Every time this stealing/infringing copyrights subject is brought up people start splitting words! It's ridiculous!
I'll just answer to all of you dictionary-nazis with a previous post attached to another story.
Why can't I mod myself up to +2 Angry?
I'm sorry, it may just be me - but what does that have to do with "installing software"? I'm sure we could easilly dish up a lot of flaws in all OSes, but that's just not really the topic here...
IMO it's way easier to install software on e.g. Debian than it is on Windows - and when it comes to keeping a system up-to-date... Fuhgeddaboudit!
On windows you have to either find the software on some obscure website or have a cdrom with it - and then when you need to update the software, you need to go back to that obscure place again. Fortunately many programs are starting to ship with an "update self" feature - but still...
On my Debian box I simply search the apt repositories I've put in my configuration, when I find the software I want - install it and Debian takes care of the rest. And if I want to update my system... 'apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y'. And if I'm not comfortable with the command line I'll just use a tool such as Synaptic.
I know several non-techy people who has made the switch from Windows to Linux and all of them have been very impressed and delighted with Debian and it's package-system.
Does it run on Linux? :-p