To add more spice to it, in Poland even for legitimate (in state's eyes) use of xerox machine one had to obtain a special permission.
Comparisons of laser printers' chips with Soviet Russia are, however, exaggerating. There are probably lots of possibilities to distinguish two copies printed by two laser machines. While giving the state the possibility not just to compare the output of two known laser printers (which I'm sure comes very handy when tracking false money, extortions or some con-man tricks) but to find the printer which printed any possible text is surely disturbing, there is no comparison with Soviet-style secret police. Soviets didn't have to bother with chips, they had people spying on other people, on their neighbours and spouses --- it always works better than technology. The best defence before Soviet-style supervision is assuring your country isn't run by such kind of people.
This is a problem which will never be solved completely: should we go for the elite in education, or for the masses? I think that the best way would be somewhere in the middle. I train students in Poland. Freshmen are terrible, they barely graps anything. On the 3rd and 4th year, though, the remaining half is quite bright and graps things pretty easily. Of course, this may be due to my poor teaching skills, but other tutors agree with me that freshmen are terrible...
Funny thing is, for me the "it will save you money" part never was that important. But, I started using Linux when I was using Windows 95, so the stability increase was enormous. What remains is the feeling of freedom I have when I use Linux, something I don't feel in Windows.
pointing at George "Read my lips" Bush as a cautionary tale.
Bush did not lie, he broke his promise. Politicians sometimes have to do that, because the situation changes unexpectedly (I have no clue whether Bush Sr. had to, I only want to point out that lying and breaking a promise are two different things).
Also, when in a room with Microsoft & Co., they admitted it WOULD allow pattenting of everything. I think that says something. I only regret that Poland's only issue is the pattentability of code that can "run on an average personal computer", not code in general. As soon as they fix that issue, Poland looks like they will side with it next time around.
The "average personal computer" wording does not appear in the official statement of Polish government, which can be found at http://www.kprm.gov.pl/441_12649.htm (alas, only in Polish). The statement says about computers in general.
Not so soon, as the constitution will take more than a year to be ratified by all 25 states and come into effect, if ratified (it's still far from certain). Plus, the difference really isn't that big.
It's stupid for a Pole to respond to another Pole's criticism of Poland on Slashdot, but I'll try. I think the parent poster is overly pessimistic, the guy who took the bribes is already in jail and he didn't succeed in convincing anyone in the government to his propositions. THe corruption is really large in Poland, but it's not like Chicago in Al Capone's times, not yet at least;-)
Anyway, I find it amusing that when Poland is being praised on Slashdot, the people who bitch it most are those from Poland... Are we Poles so used to p...ng against the wind?
If Microsoft did not succeed in making Polish government back software patents directive, this is a welcome change. In the past, Microsoft was very influential in Poland.
Cats don't play with mice for no reason. They do it to prepare their stomachs for digestion of food. Humans don't need that, as we're not carnivores only (like pigs, we eat what we get).
A ton of other things including a professional and consistent feel despite the desktop environment being used? --- what the heck does it mean? The top of my desk feels woody, 'cause its made of wood. PLD leaves for the user to decide how his desktop environment will look like, and I like that approach. Yes, PLD has a graphical lilo available, less sexy than SuSE, but the package management is better. Suits my preferences.
I depends on whether it is possible to make this application run without root privileges. If Linux kernel forced users to run games as root, who's fault would it be?
Mandelbrot did not discover fractals. He talks in his interview about Julia's work. One could also mention the famous Sierpinski's Triangle, which was studied by a Polish mathematician Wadysaw Sierpiski.
Slashdot Mirror
Despite the drawbacks of How-To's, I was able to grasp the basics of network administration from them, knowing nothing about it before.
To add more spice to it, in Poland even for legitimate (in state's eyes) use of xerox machine one had to obtain a special permission.
Comparisons of laser printers' chips with Soviet Russia are, however, exaggerating. There are probably lots of possibilities to distinguish two copies printed by two laser machines. While giving the state the possibility not just to compare the output of two known laser printers (which I'm sure comes very handy when tracking false money, extortions or some con-man tricks) but to find the printer which printed any possible text is surely disturbing, there is no comparison with Soviet-style secret police. Soviets didn't have to bother with chips, they had people spying on other people, on their neighbours and spouses --- it always works better than technology. The best defence before Soviet-style supervision is assuring your country isn't run by such kind of people.
I don't think many countries have worse rulers than Ukraine has at the moment... look at the CNN and see how they falsified the elections.
This is a problem which will never be solved completely: should we go for the elite in education, or for the masses? I think that the best way would be somewhere in the middle. I train students in Poland. Freshmen are terrible, they barely graps anything. On the 3rd and 4th year, though, the remaining half is quite bright and graps things pretty easily. Of course, this may be due to my poor teaching skills, but other tutors agree with me that freshmen are terrible...
Funny thing is, for me the "it will save you money" part never was that important. But, I started using Linux when I was using Windows 95, so the stability increase was enormous. What remains is the feeling of freedom I have when I use Linux, something I don't feel in Windows.
Aww man, I get most of my research for free. Is all theoretical physics crap?
pointing at George "Read my lips" Bush as a cautionary tale.
Bush did not lie, he broke his promise. Politicians sometimes have to do that, because the situation changes unexpectedly (I have no clue whether Bush Sr. had to, I only want to point out that lying and breaking a promise are two different things).
If you want to say something about patents and wan't to be 100% sure noone will twist your words and use them to their own advantage, say nothing.
So long as you carry them all on the same path, you won't lose that regularity.
This is the non-trivial part. Light fibres can carry one pulse faster than other, because the fibre can change its shape a little bit over time.
The diminishing glaciers of Himalaya and the Alpes are in hotspots, too?
Who in their right mind would sign such a treaty?
Quite a lot of countries, in fact.
Tough little country
With nearly 40 million inhabitants, I wouldn't call it "little".
Also, when in a room with Microsoft & Co., they admitted it WOULD allow pattenting of everything. I think that says something. I only regret that Poland's only issue is the pattentability of code that can "run on an average personal computer", not code in general. As soon as they fix that issue, Poland looks like they will side with it next time around.
The "average personal computer" wording does not appear in the official statement of Polish government, which can be found at http://www.kprm.gov.pl/441_12649.htm (alas, only in Polish). The statement says about computers in general.
Not so soon, as the constitution will take more than a year to be ratified by all 25 states and come into effect, if ratified (it's still far from certain). Plus, the difference really isn't that big.
It's stupid for a Pole to respond to another Pole's criticism of Poland on Slashdot, but I'll try. I think the parent poster is overly pessimistic, the guy who took the bribes is already in jail and he didn't succeed in convincing anyone in the government to his propositions. THe corruption is really large in Poland, but it's not like Chicago in Al Capone's times, not yet at least ;-)
Anyway, I find it amusing that when Poland is being praised on Slashdot, the people who bitch it most are those from Poland... Are we Poles so used to p...ng against the wind?
If Microsoft did not succeed in making Polish government back software patents directive, this is a welcome change. In the past, Microsoft was very influential in Poland.
Add to it: corporate income tax 19%.
Cats don't play with mice for no reason. They do it to prepare their stomachs for digestion of food. Humans don't need that, as we're not carnivores only (like pigs, we eat what we get).
Kernel 2.6.9? --- still 2.6.8, with 2.6.10 on the way
Improved Wireless utilities?
A ton of other things including a professional and consistent feel despite the desktop environment being used? --- what the heck does it mean? The top of my desk feels woody, 'cause its made of wood. PLD leaves for the user to decide how his desktop environment will look like, and I like that approach. Yes, PLD has a graphical lilo available, less sexy than SuSE, but the package management is better. Suits my preferences.
http://www.pld-linux.org/index_html?set_language=e n&cl=en
Yes, I had RTFA. Yes, I have a girlfriend. Yes, I'm new here. No, I don't want a free iPod.
Does you girlfriend want a free iPod?
GNOME 2.8? KDE 3.3? Evolution 2.0? Firefox? http://www.pld-linux.org/ got there first...
I depends on whether it is possible to make this application run without root privileges. If Linux kernel forced users to run games as root, who's fault would it be?
Wadysaw Sierpiski
Something has eaten Polish diacritical symbols. His name without them is Wladyslaw Sierpinski.
Mandelbrot did not discover fractals. He talks in his interview about Julia's work. One could also mention the famous Sierpinski's Triangle, which was studied by a Polish mathematician Wadysaw Sierpiski.