Well, I was going to go into a tirade about how stupid the girl is, but the reality is that she called to explain the mixup and Dell somehow convinced her to keep Ubuntu. Dell, if someone calls and says they got a Ubuntu computer by mistake, just have them ship it back. It isn't worth it.
As far as I'm concerned, it simply punishes the extremely stupid.
If you can't even figure out how a "good employee" would answer for most of the questions, then I highly suspect you stand little chance of actually being one.
If you haven't noticed, most computers with Linux installed by default aren't easy to come by. The vast majority of the time you have to go out of your way to get one, and they are rarely any cheaper. In fact, Dell XPS m1330's are routinely more expensive with Ubuntu installed. The exceptions here are the netbooks, of course.
I'd wager that WAY more XP/Vista boxes get reinstalled with Linux than the other way around.
Basically, the idea is that you may vote for as many of the candidates as you approve of.
For instance, a good chunk of people enjoy many of the ideas that the Libertarian party believes in. This same chunk of people often has to make a choice between voting for a democrat or a republican, because everyone knows third parties stand no chance here.
Now, under the Approval voting system, you could vote for both the Libertarian candidate and the party you would have ended up voting for had you no choice.
Now, I do not believe that the Libertarian party would win. What I do believe is that they would receive a much larger number of votes, and many of the idea would be much harder for the main two parties to ignore.
The same, of course, would happen to the Pirate Party. They are not going to win, let's face it. But, if they were to receive a vote from 15-30% of the population (a reasonable goal), the major parties could not ignore that.
What makes this system so great, however, is the incredible ease of implementation. It isn't complicated for voters to understand, and ballots could already support multiple votes.
The quiz in question has you choose which of two sites, based on screenshots, has spyware. The sites were all for things like screen savers, song lyrics, and free game downloads. That is a terrible, terrible way to judge a users capability to determine if something has spyware.
Being able to produce hydrogen in a way that does not use fossil fuels "at all" is a huge step in the right direction.
Another process in development involves bacteria that have a hydrogen waste product, if my memory serves me correctly.
Of course, solar, wind, and geothermal are also reasonable ideas.
The first person/company that is able to produce hydrogen cheaply using renewable resources will be an unbelievably good investment. (Assuming patents are taken care of properly)
Ok. I'm not an OS Zealot. I currently use Windows XP on my personal computer.
I disagree with the idea of making something "Windows only" when it is in no way necessary. Equivalent applications could be written in Java, or (preferably) could be completely web based.
Both of these options would work for all users. Neither of these options would be more expensive.
What happened is very simple. The government hired a company that poorly engineered their software.
You are right, it probably doesn't matter to 90% of the people. But don't pretend it would have been harder or more expensive to do it right and have it work for 100% of people.
Explain to me why you would want a government to artificially limit the usability of something as important as Tax Software.
I agree about the streaming. It doesn't seem right to me that Keyhole, now Google Earth, loads more slowly than Google Maps. They clearly use the same map data in almost all cases. And in some cases, I even like the Google Maps interface better. For instance, the 'double-click to center' seems easier than the Google Earth 'double-click to center and zoom'.
However, Google Earth does have some serious advantages in altitude sensitive data. I like being able to see what elevation my mouse curser is at, for instance.
Additionally, Google Earth has the much needed city and road data for the rest of the world, which I would like to see incorporated into Google Maps as well.
Personally, I think the real problem is the availability of service in conjunction with the cost, rather than people's desire for it.
At this point in time, small wireless network hotspots are not all that useful except in certain situations, such as your home, your office, or a type of business such as a fast food joint.
WiMax (or an equivalent solution) is, of course, the only way that something like this will become effective. If user realizes that wireless access will be available ANYWHERE, not just some half block area, then more than 27 users will take advantage. Plus, when this happens, it will pave the way for VOIP services for mobile phones.
I have yet to make up my mind if this is a service that should even be provided by the government. It may be better left to private organizations to ensure that the government does not restrict or monitor information across the network.
[Obvious] Oh, well the best way to get funding would probably be to get information about your project posted on a high traffic, open source friendly discussion forum. Yea, I'd probably do that first...
I go to the University of Missouri. I wouldn't want to be in his class
either. Hmm, I don't have enough of the keywords in my paper? How about you
actually read the paper you made me write?
Apparently there was some question to the validity of an earlier project because
it was sponsored by Microsoft.
However, I would like to note that both researchers seem very well educated,
especially in computer security. And, additionally, they both note that a lot more
could be done to lock down the Linux server.
Alright, I get that seeing violence tends to make people more casual about
it. But if you can't control yourself to the point that you go out and kill
people, something is certainly happening that the lawyer isn't talking about.
I see that they are suing the stores that sold the kid the game (it was rated
M, he wasn't 17). Anyone want to explain where the PARENTS are while this is
happening? What about the movies he sees? What about REAL LIFE? I mean, this
stuff really does happen, you can't just pretend it doesn't. Kids under 17 do
watch the news.
I agree, it sucks. Kids are getting more and more exposed to violence, and it
makes it harder for parents to control it. But the people who need to take
responsibility for this are the parents and the kid himself.
Although, the 25 million downloads doesn't actually equate to 25 million
users. How many times have you downloaded Firefox? I'm over 10, that's for sure.
And how many people got it from others, rather than downloading it?
I mean, it really doesn't matter, it really shouldn't be a competition
anyway. If it is a good product, it will do well. Who really cares if it
competes with IE? All more users really do is bring attention (very possibly
malicious) to the project.
No, it quite certainly is still illegal to abuse. A subscription to Napster gives
you the legal right to use the songs you want for as long as you pay a subscription
to Napster. You are not paying for the song; you are paying for the right to RENT
the song.
Even if it was illegal, dont try to pretend that it still wouldnt be IMMORAL.
Does it really matter if your country doesn't have specific laws keeping you from
doing this?
Does the artist of the song get paid? No? Well, arent you kind of screwing him/her
over? I think the answer is clear.
All that is happening is that people are grabbing the actual output of the song,
and dropping it into a wav file. This will ALWAYS happen with any kind of copy protection.
If you let users actually hear (music) or see (movies/tv) the content, there will
always be a way to get it. At the absolute worst, people can just set up a tape
recorder and grab it from that.
Regardless, the point is that it is STILL ILLEGAL to abuse. Until you can get people to
stop breaking the law voluntarily (via fair pricing and good business practices),
all media/content companies will have to keep playing this game. What they need
to realize is that they are always going to lose.
I've been using the unofficial version (http://companion.mozdev.org/) for some time now, and it actually works almost exactly the same. The official Yahoo one seems to work just about perfectly as far as I can tell.
What would really like to see is the ability to have your Firefox bookmarks synchronize with your Yahoo bookmarks automatically, so that you could have them wherever you go.
Additionally, I wish it would highlight the search terms like the Google toolbar.
I'm actually pretty sure the reason Google keeps ignoring Safari is that the XML Http method in javascript only works on Mozilla and as an ActiveX method in IE.
Slashdot Mirror
The most interesting photos:
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGC/StaticFiles/Images/Show/39xx/394x/3942_Hitlers_Stealth_Fighter-09_10240768.jpg
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGC/StaticFiles/Images/Show/39xx/394x/3942_Hitlers_Stealth_Fighter-08_10240768.jpg
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGC/StaticFiles/Images/Show/39xx/394x/3942_Hitlers_Stealth_Fighter-04_10240768.jpg
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGC/StaticFiles/Images/Show/39xx/394x/3942_Hitlers_Stealth_Fighter-11_10240768.jpg
Well, I was going to go into a tirade about how stupid the girl is, but the reality is that she called to explain the mixup and Dell somehow convinced her to keep Ubuntu. Dell, if someone calls and says they got a Ubuntu computer by mistake, just have them ship it back. It isn't worth it.
As far as I'm concerned, it simply punishes the extremely stupid.
If you can't even figure out how a "good employee" would answer for most of the questions, then I highly suspect you stand little chance of actually being one.
Nah.
If you haven't noticed, most computers with Linux installed by default aren't easy to come by. The vast majority of the time you have to go out of your way to get one, and they are rarely any cheaper. In fact, Dell XPS m1330's are routinely more expensive with Ubuntu installed. The exceptions here are the netbooks, of course.
I'd wager that WAY more XP/Vista boxes get reinstalled with Linux than the other way around.
I found an image showing what these things apparently look like:
Link to Image
The image shows that they can be used with an adapter to fit an existing SD card slot.
Can these things just be stuck strait into USB slots?
And this is where Approval Voting comes into play.
Basically, the idea is that you may vote for as many of the candidates as you approve of.
For instance, a good chunk of people enjoy many of the ideas that the Libertarian party believes in. This same chunk of people often has to make a choice between voting for a democrat or a republican, because everyone knows third parties stand no chance here.
Now, under the Approval voting system, you could vote for both the Libertarian candidate and the party you would have ended up voting for had you no choice.
Now, I do not believe that the Libertarian party would win. What I do believe is that they would receive a much larger number of votes, and many of the idea would be much harder for the main two parties to ignore.
The same, of course, would happen to the Pirate Party. They are not going to win, let's face it. But, if they were to receive a vote from 15-30% of the population (a reasonable goal), the major parties could not ignore that.
What makes this system so great, however, is the incredible ease of implementation. It isn't complicated for voters to understand, and ballots could already support multiple votes.
The quiz in question has you choose which of two sites, based on screenshots, has spyware. The sites were all for things like screen savers, song lyrics, and free game downloads. That is a terrible, terrible way to judge a users capability to determine if something has spyware.
What about sound?
Being able to produce hydrogen in a way that does not use fossil fuels "at all" is a huge step in the right direction.
Another process in development involves bacteria that have a hydrogen waste product, if my memory serves me correctly.
Of course, solar, wind, and geothermal are also reasonable ideas.
The first person/company that is able to produce hydrogen cheaply using renewable resources will be an unbelievably good investment. (Assuming patents are taken care of properly)
Ok. I'm not an OS Zealot. I currently use Windows XP on my personal computer.
I disagree with the idea of making something "Windows only" when it is in no way necessary. Equivalent applications could be written in Java, or (preferably) could be completely web based.
Both of these options would work for all users. Neither of these options would be more expensive.
What happened is very simple. The government hired a company that poorly engineered their software.
You are right, it probably doesn't matter to 90% of the people. But don't pretend it would have been harder or more expensive to do it right and have it work for 100% of people.
Explain to me why you would want a government to artificially limit the usability of something as important as Tax Software.
I agree about the streaming. It doesn't seem right to me that Keyhole, now Google Earth, loads more slowly than Google Maps. They clearly use the same map data in almost all cases. And in some cases, I even like the Google Maps interface better. For instance, the 'double-click to center' seems easier than the Google Earth 'double-click to center and zoom'.
However, Google Earth does have some serious advantages in altitude sensitive data. I like being able to see what elevation my mouse curser is at, for instance.
Additionally, Google Earth has the much needed city and road data for the rest of the world, which I would like to see incorporated into Google Maps as well.
Personally, I think the real problem is the availability of service in conjunction with the cost, rather than people's desire for it.
At this point in time, small wireless network hotspots are not all that useful except in certain situations, such as your home, your office, or a type of business such as a fast food joint.
WiMax (or an equivalent solution) is, of course, the only way that something like this will become effective. If user realizes that wireless access will be available ANYWHERE, not just some half block area, then more than 27 users will take advantage. Plus, when this happens, it will pave the way for VOIP services for mobile phones.
I have yet to make up my mind if this is a service that should even be provided by the government. It may be better left to private organizations to ensure that the government does not restrict or monitor information across the network.
[Obvious] Oh, well the best way to get funding would probably be to get information about your project posted on a high traffic, open source friendly discussion forum. Yea, I'd probably do that first...
If I remember correctly, Homo sapiens are not descendents of Neanderthals. I'm pretty sure Neanderthals and humans just have common ancestors.
In the post-9/11 world, Soviet Russians hack you! Sorry.
I go to the University of Missouri. I wouldn't want to be in his class either. Hmm, I don't have enough of the keywords in my paper? How about you actually read the paper you made me write?
a culty/Edward_Brent.html
http://sociology.missouri.edu/Faculty_and_Staff/F
Well, even if it isn't patented I'm pretty sure it is still copyrighted.
Well, apparently this is the second time Microsoft has come out on top of a research project by Mr. Richard Ford.
http://www.virusbtn.com/magazine/articles/letters/ 2004/01_01.xml
Apparently there was some question to the validity of an earlier project because it was sponsored by Microsoft.
However, I would like to note that both researchers seem very well educated, especially in computer security. And, additionally, they both note that a lot more could be done to lock down the Linux server.
Alright, I get that seeing violence tends to make people more casual about it. But if you can't control yourself to the point that you go out and kill people, something is certainly happening that the lawyer isn't talking about.
I see that they are suing the stores that sold the kid the game (it was rated M, he wasn't 17). Anyone want to explain where the PARENTS are while this is happening? What about the movies he sees? What about REAL LIFE? I mean, this stuff really does happen, you can't just pretend it doesn't. Kids under 17 do watch the news.
I agree, it sucks. Kids are getting more and more exposed to violence, and it makes it harder for parents to control it. But the people who need to take responsibility for this are the parents and the kid himself.
25 Million Agree - IE SUCKS!
Although, the 25 million downloads doesn't actually equate to 25 million users. How many times have you downloaded Firefox? I'm over 10, that's for sure. And how many people got it from others, rather than downloading it?
I mean, it really doesn't matter, it really shouldn't be a competition anyway. If it is a good product, it will do well. Who really cares if it competes with IE? All more users really do is bring attention (very possibly malicious) to the project.
No, it quite certainly is still illegal to abuse. A subscription to Napster gives you the legal right to use the songs you want for as long as you pay a subscription to Napster. You are not paying for the song; you are paying for the right to RENT the song.
http://www.napster.com/terms.html
Even if it was illegal, dont try to pretend that it still wouldnt be IMMORAL. Does it really matter if your country doesn't have specific laws keeping you from doing this?
Does the artist of the song get paid? No? Well, arent you kind of screwing him/her over? I think the answer is clear.
Oh this has been explained for a while: http://marv.kordix.com/archives/000400.html
All that is happening is that people are grabbing the actual output of the song, and dropping it into a wav file. This will ALWAYS happen with any kind of copy protection. If you let users actually hear (music) or see (movies/tv) the content, there will always be a way to get it. At the absolute worst, people can just set up a tape recorder and grab it from that.
Regardless, the point is that it is STILL ILLEGAL to abuse. Until you can get people to stop breaking the law voluntarily (via fair pricing and good business practices), all media/content companies will have to keep playing this game. What they need to realize is that they are always going to lose.
Wow. That looks amazing. The picture on the page linked says it all. It is VERY bright.
I would love to have this, because then I wouldn't have to force a home theatre into the basement.
I've been using the unofficial version (http://companion.mozdev.org/) for some time now, and it actually works almost exactly the same. The official Yahoo one seems to work just about perfectly as far as I can tell.
What would really like to see is the ability to have your Firefox bookmarks synchronize with your Yahoo bookmarks automatically, so that you could have them wherever you go.
Additionally, I wish it would highlight the search terms like the Google toolbar.
I'm actually pretty sure the reason Google keeps ignoring Safari is that the XML Http method in javascript only works on Mozilla and as an ActiveX method in IE.
http://jibbering.com/2002/4/httprequest.html