I think parent was looking for a Funny mod. At least I hope so. Hocking and Young will make your toes curl, and none of the list are what you'd call classics of mathematical exposition.
You do realize you agreed to it when you started using the service right?
I'm sure any number of drive-by-installed spyware programs could say exactly the same thing.
You do realize you can choose to NOT use the service in light of this right?
What about the people I email, and whose email I'd receive in a gmail account? They haven't given their consent to have their communications tapped, and I hardly think it's practical to check the privacy policy of every email provider of everyone you might want to email.
There are obviously tons of people that freak out about Gmail's method of showing ads when you view your emails and such, and here we have Google cracking jokes at their own practices.
Well, ha bloody ha. What a hilarious joke invasion of privacy is. Honestly, I know Google has built up a lot of goodwill in the community, but that doesn't mean we have to sycophantically welcome every single thing it does.
To say nothing of a week ago. Either slashdotters have short memories, or they like going on and on about the same thing over and over again. Come to think of it...probably both.
I found the article very encouraging. I think there's a danger of Linux appearing as something that's a cheap alternative used in the third world because they can't afford "first rate" proprietary software. This is patronizing both to Linux and to third world countries. It's great to see intelligent arguments to choose open source beyond simple cost being made by a government, as in If the source code is proprietary, it is hidden from the general population. This robs them of a tremendous source for learning.
That's right, I mean having my computer crippled with malware and popups is a small price to pay for not having to manually install an improved version every six months.
Why don't they just make it available on the net and see what happens.
In maths and physics, at least, there's already the arXiv, and a new non-commercial journal http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/gt/ that publishes through the arXiv, and which seems to be a viable going concern as far as one can tell.
All is not perfect: recently the journal published an erroneous article, which subsequently disappeared from the arXiv (cf. this
thread), which shows the risk of online publishing. Nonetheless, the principle remains: with support from a university, peer-reviewed journals, cheap to access and cheap to submit to, are already possible.
What's the matter, Yahoo? Can't get enough people to install your software on its own merits? Have to resort to tricking people into installing your software? That's the mark of a bad product.
Yahoo gave up any claim to self-respect a long time ago.
It's very tempting to declare the old addage, "Live by the sword, die by the sword", but I'm not sure if that's the right attitude.
Oh, I don't know - no harm in feeling a teensy bit smug once in a while. And sometimes the cliches say it best of all - "hoist from their own petard" was the one that sprang to my mind.
You can be sure that Microsoft lawyers are studying this as closely as possible to see if there is any way they could market a dominant Linux distribution without killing themselves.
WTF? WTF? I mean, if there was any realistic way that MicroSoft could kill Linux, then that would be a smart investment for them and they'd do it instantly - as they've done numerous times before (1-2-3, Netscape, blah blah blah, well trodden ground).
Myself, I very seriously doubt that MicroSoft's lawyers would waste a minute of their time thinking about such a hair-brained scheme even after a long evening's heavy drinking funded by Windows licensees.
Now, Ben wants VeriSign to clean up its act: it should refuse to issue certificates to companies that use obviously fake names (such as "CLICK YES TO CONTINUE") or that use those certificates to deceive consumers."
Come on! Verisign's whole business model is to sell as many certificates as it can - it's simply not in their interests to show scruples like that. Verisign have the MicroSoft seal of approval, so for the average desktop user that makes their reputation beyond suspicion, so they have nothing to lose.
I too started out writing interpreted BASIC programs for the C64 - Reversi, Chequers, even a tragic attempt at a chess program. Then, the choice was BASIC or assembler - nowadays I see no reason why kids shouldn't start out with C, which is less formidable that screwing around with
LDA $C12a BEQ myLabel
or whatever; small programs will compile almost instantly on modern hardware...and will make serious programming easier later in life. "Son, my Christmas present to you is: man gcc."
AFAIK most GPL licensed software is governed by the current GPL license "or later". What is stopping anyone from writing their own GPL 3.0 license??
It's a worry - who knows what the future holds even for the official GPL? You aren't obliged to allow people to choose "current or later", and I favour releasing everything under "version 2 only", so I always know where I stand and where my code stands.
Re:Don't come along often?
on
Prime Obsession
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Not to forget N. Bourbaki, "Elements de Mathematique".
It's also these big companies that have to pay the most for spam I think, in bandwidth and storage costs etc.
Call me a cynic, but aren't the big companies the ones who make the most from spam, by selling the email addresses of their (non-paying, at least) customers to all comers? I'm afraid when MS and Yahoo are concerned about spam, I always think of dracula complaining about an excess of blood.
Slashdot Mirror
I think parent was looking for a Funny mod. At least I hope so. Hocking and Young will make your toes curl, and none of the list are what you'd call classics of mathematical exposition.
I'm sure any number of drive-by-installed spyware programs could say exactly the same thing.
What about the people I email, and whose email I'd receive in a gmail account? They haven't given their consent to have their communications tapped, and I hardly think it's practical to check the privacy policy of every email provider of everyone you might want to email.
Well, ha bloody ha. What a hilarious joke invasion of privacy is. Honestly, I know Google has built up a lot of goodwill in the community, but that doesn't mean we have to sycophantically welcome every single thing it does.
End of grumpy rant...
Well,
sounds a bit sinisterTo say nothing of a week ago. Either slashdotters have short memories, or they like going on and on about the same thing over and over again. Come to think of it...probably both.
FYI, you might like to read this thread: http://forums.vidalinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=2675 about updating VidaLinux versions and Gentoo portage.
My personal advice: don't wait, get Vida today! (besides, that way KDE will have finished compiling by the time VL 1.2 comes out...)
I found the article very encouraging. I think there's a danger of Linux appearing as something that's a cheap alternative used in the third world because they can't afford "first rate" proprietary software. This is patronizing both to Linux and to third world countries. It's great to see intelligent arguments to choose open source beyond simple cost being made by a government, as in If the source code is proprietary, it is hidden from the general population. This robs them of a tremendous source for learning.
That's right, I mean having my computer crippled with malware and popups is a small price to pay for not having to manually install an improved version every six months.
Seems unlikely - surely there are separate teams working on each?
So now I know to always type /bin/su whenever I have a 'friend' who's a total dick near my computer...
For better or worse, that's the way it is. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
In maths and physics, at least, there's already the arXiv, and a new non-commercial journal http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/gt/ that publishes through the arXiv, and which seems to be a viable going concern as far as one can tell.
All is not perfect: recently the journal published an erroneous article, which subsequently disappeared from the arXiv (cf. this thread), which shows the risk of online publishing. Nonetheless, the principle remains: with support from a university, peer-reviewed journals, cheap to access and cheap to submit to, are already possible.
Yahoo gave up any claim to self-respect a long time ago.
Oh, I don't know - no harm in feeling a teensy bit smug once in a while. And sometimes the cliches say it best of all - "hoist from their own petard" was the one that sprang to my mind.
Parent is spot on. I mean:
You can be sure that Microsoft lawyers are studying this as closely as possible to see if there is any way they could market a dominant Linux distribution without killing themselves.WTF? WTF? I mean, if there was any realistic way that MicroSoft could kill Linux, then that would be a smart investment for them and they'd do it instantly - as they've done numerous times before (1-2-3, Netscape, blah blah blah, well trodden ground).
Myself, I very seriously doubt that MicroSoft's lawyers would waste a minute of their time thinking about such a hair-brained scheme even after a long evening's heavy drinking funded by Windows licensees.
Come on! Verisign's whole business model is to sell as many certificates as it can - it's simply not in their interests to show scruples like that. Verisign have the MicroSoft seal of approval, so for the average desktop user that makes their reputation beyond suspicion, so they have nothing to lose.
I too started out writing interpreted BASIC programs for the C64 - Reversi, Chequers, even a tragic attempt at a chess program. Then, the choice was BASIC or assembler - nowadays I see no reason why kids shouldn't start out with C, which is less formidable that screwing around with
or whatever; small programs will compile almost instantly on modern hardware...and will make serious programming easier later in life. "Son, my Christmas present to you is: man gcc."
Gee I'm really sorry if that's something I think is worth banging on about.
Noone's going to stop /.ers moaning about non-free software. Opera could solve the problem immediately by modernizing its licence.
It's a worry - who knows what the future holds even for the official GPL? You aren't obliged to allow people to choose "current or later", and I favour releasing everything under "version 2 only", so I always know where I stand and where my code stands.
Not to forget N. Bourbaki, "Elements de Mathematique".
Call me a cynic, but aren't the big companies the ones who make the most from spam, by selling the email addresses of their (non-paying, at least) customers to all comers? I'm afraid when MS and Yahoo are concerned about spam, I always think of dracula complaining about an excess of blood.
Me, I carefully considered Abiword's monolithism and decided to use lighter tools such as groff.
Yes, that's right. No Christian can be left wing.
But if that's the side-effect, do his motives really matter? Look around the web and see how productive people fuelled by hate can be.