Legislation only serves to screw the Guy With Less Money. When and if these laws do get passed, it will only be a matter of time before some big corporation uses them, not to defeat spam, but as a good excuse put the financial hurt on other corporations. Or instead, to silence the unhappy customer. "The e-mail that you, Joe Consumer, sent to complaints@company.com, was unsolicited. We're suing you for damages. See you in court, unless of course you prefer to accept our benevolent generousity and settle for a mere $250.00."
Technology is the only correct way to solve the spam problem. Trying to solve problems in trigger-happy legalese America with new laws is just throwing gas on the fire.
This situation has been approaching for a while now.
What will the ALA, librarians, and book publishers around the world say, what insanely stupid legislation will they lobby to enact, when people begin to creating legitimate electronic duplicates of books and other printed material under their fair use rights?
I'll tell you what. The DMCA. All over again. And worse. Applied to literature, rather than music. You heard it here first.
But one thing still puzzles me. Typically, librarians are super cool people, full of common-sense, against stupid legislation like that of internet censorship. (See also one of my most favorite 'sites on the net.) I wonder what the reaction to electronification of information will be of the level-headed, pro-freedom librarians of the world. Will it be librarians vs. publishers and the ALA, side-by-side with programmers and technophiles vs. the MPAA and RIAA?
What needs to happen is a complete and total revolution and upheaval in the way we think about intellectual "property" and copyright law. But that will, of course, never happen in our corporate-ruled capitalist soceity.
I think it's time to pay a visit, and hit the information desk. It's been way too long since I visited the local library.
I'm one of the "good software can make up for cheap hardware" camp. Flame on, whatever.
I'd probably buy one of these. If the introductory price is $89, that means it could fall, too.
I speculated that something like this might occur when PCChips, a motherboard manufacturing company that creates a lot of cheap, sexy form factor all-in-one boards, released their EPD30 model PDA. I purchase PCChips motherboards exclusively for use in my machines, and if this PDA is one made by them, I'll definitely purchase it, to support my favorite cheap-ass hardware manufacturing company. It certainly looks similar, from the one tiny picture I've found of it.
One reason I'm fond of PCChips is that they tend to use hardware that is standardized and usually has had its documentation published by the manufacturer. (SiS advertises themselves as "supporting linux".) Which means it's only a matter of time and code before it can work with an open-source operating system, and you don't get locked into using bastardized proprietary shit that you have to kowtow with an open wallet at some big industry CEO to get at. And if you have the skills, you can improve the way your system works just by writing and installing software.
Looks like it comes with a hotsync cable, not a cradle. Cool! I'm all for cheaper products through less extraneous plastic.
Does anybody have a more thourough review or better pictures of the hardware?
-Mike
Yes, I'm a masochistic software developer with a cheap hardware fetish. You probably wouldn't understand.
Didn't we just go through this with the e-book story?
There's no such thing as the "rental" of electronic information!
If you can view it on your screen, through a machine you own, you can make a digital duplicate of it! That's all there is to it, no matter how long the big companies try to struggle to come up with the next best way to cripple/encrypt the content that you have paid for.
And as soon as someone cracks whatever scheme they plan to use to "time-limit" the movies, we'll be seeing the lawsuits flying. As usual.
Until the media megacorporations realize and accept this (I'm not holding my breath waiting for that), we're just going to see the Skylarov incident and the DMCA invoked to hurt innocent people over and over and over again.
My two cents. You might try appending "I think that..." before every sentence below.
Argh. This will fail, for the same reason that the DMCA will eventually fail.
If we assume that we are using a device that you own and control (such as your personal computer), then what follows is a universal truth:
If it is true that
you can see (i.e. displayed on your screen) the representation of electronic information,
then it is also always true that
you can make a duplicate of that information and use it as you please.
Companies who try to evade this universal truth by creating an artificial scarcity of information in an effort to make more money are doomed to failure. Of course, until they accept the hopelessness of trying, we are going to see companies flail about with their lawsuits and congress-bullying to get laws made to protect their budgets from the advancement of technology.
As the amount of available bandwidth continues to increase, I think greedy corporations that deal in the sale (or, rental) of information will finally have to stop suing the world and devise a new, sane to make money. Right now, corporations wish for us to think of information as a scarce, limited-availability, tangable substance. Because companies that deal in the sale of limited-availability tangable substances can command a good price. While electronic information is becoming an unlimited-availability, non-tangable substance, money-hungry companies would have consumers think otherwise through the misuse of laws and congress-bullying. This is why this book-rental idea, and the DMCA, are so stupid.
Predictions:
In the coming decades, as technology improves, I think information in and of itself will become much less monitarily valuable. Instead, the real value will have to be placed on the immediacy of the information. Meaning: Information can and will be disseminated. But, some may wish to pay a premium to be the ones to get at said information first. And that is where the value will lie.
Some folks have also compared this scheme to Blockbuster Video. You can charge rent for a video because said video is a scarce, limited-availability, tangable substance. Namely, a videocassette containing a video in a conveinient-to-use format. You cannot, however charge "rent" for an electronic representation of said video. Because once that electronic representation exists, it instantly becomes an unlimited-availability, non-tangable substance. You can, however, Still charge rent for the conveinience of using a videocassette.
Let's look at music. You can command a huge price for a live performance. You can charge a decent price for a conveinient-to-use piece of media containing a musical performance. But once that media can be read and represented in an electronic format, the representation of that performance loses all value except for that of the immediacy of its availablity.
Let's look at literature. You can command a huge price for a piece of literature written just for a client. (Say, documentation, or a poem, or a biography... etc.) You can charge a decent price for a conveinient-to-use piece of media containing a work of literature. But once that media can be read and represented in an electronic format, the representation of that work loses all value except for that of the immediacy of its availablity. So, as soon as there exists a device which can rip a paperback book into an electronic format the with the speed and ease that a cd-rom can rip cd-audio into an electronic format, we will see the same DMCA, IP, and copyright turmoil in the literary industry that we currently see in the music industry. Even if the DMCA has already been overturned and forgotten about.
This is just the way it looks to me like things will work out. I don't advocate for artists making less money in the future, or for "stealing" the electronic representations of an artist's work. But I think the approaching shift in the way things work will really show the world how much the creators of information are really worth to the consumers of their information. And how much more valuable a live performance is than a recorded one. People will be paying for quality of information, rather than availability.
-Mike
(Who just purchased two music CDs after he had downloaded and evaluated the electronic representations of their entire contents.)
I'm too lazy and not skilled enough of a programmer to completely understand the way the DeCSS (css-auth.c) code works. So I was wondering if anybody could enlighten me (or give me a URL to study) as to how Charles H. Hannum's 442-byte program is able to accomplish the same task as was previously bloated by the inclusion of those tables.
Does the program functionally regenerate the tables? Or is it something else?
I've never seen cases made from nice furniture wood. I'de really love to have a walnut case or maybe an ebony case.
This guy has done it. There also used to be a company in Upstate NY that manufactured, among other things, fully wooden (cherry and oak) keyboards, but I've forgotten the URL. It was mentioned on Slashdot before, in one of the many articles titled "The best keyboard in the world?" (or something).
I've been lately going to my local CompUSA to drool over the itty bitty Crusoe-powered VAIO notbook (the one with the built-in camera.)
I'm elated that there's multiple vendors out there planning to ship Crusoe laptops. The only thing keeping me from purchasing the VAIO (besides lack of money) is the proprietary sony memory-stick bullshit that I refuse to support.
What programming skills should amateur developers, like me, go out and learn in order to be able to positively contribute to the Debian GNU/Hurd project?
If you're not a "Name brand motherboard elitist"... PCChips makes some sweet looking "BookPCs". They're geared toward set-top DVD playback, and are certainly not applicable to "embedded linux." But they may be better for some than the water-cooled box with a 8MB disk-chip.
These links are to a merchant site with good photos and info:
Lyra?? Yuck! You must enjoy having to *encrypt* all your MP3s using proprietary software (RealJukebox) before loading them into a portable music player. I'd never buy that piece of shit.
Why couldn't RMS say "grant approval" instead of "give forgiveness"? Form my perspective, RMS's choice of words is the catalyst for the entire debate and the cause for much frustration and anger in the KDE camp.
RMS, according to some, was using the term "forgive" in a legal, and not a moral sense. This was taken by the KDE developers (and by myself the first three times I read RMS's post) in a moral sense.
If "forgive" is indeed a legal term, (I've never heard it used in a legal context) it certainly should have been replaced with something a little less inflammatory. Then, I'd say, RMS still has ground to stand on, although his tact is still quite lacking.
If RMS did indeed mean that KDE has some sort of moral obligation to anything in this issue of strict legalities, then RMS is simply a prick, riding of the coattails of his mostly successful tirade of anal-retentiveness.
Either way, It's my opinion that RMS needs to issue a formal apology to the KDE team and clarify his article, without putting his own bias toward GNOME behind it. KDE is trying to help out the community here.
Radical proponent for justice and freedom or not, he should still be tactful and unbiased for matters like this one.
I think it's a pitty mac os X will never run on intel. I'm unhappy with both linux (no decent UI) and windows (decent UI but unstable).
<cheesy advertisement>
Give BeOS a try. If it works with your hardware, you'll likely be impressed. It has my favorite aspects of MacOS (pretty, responsive UI) and Linux (stable, has the bash shell). It comes bundled with a decent web browser, too.
Some college kid decides to rip off Linux.com, so taco decides to slashdot the kid?
I bet this is affecting the available bandwidth of the school's internet connection.
If you ask me, slashdotting this guy was just mean. The issue should be discusssed between Linux.com and the poor college kid running a webserver on the box he needs to use to write his term papers. If there is indeed an issue at all.
If he were trying to make money, or if he had put his site on his resume, or if he were some company, then I could see the worth in this story. But some college kid? SO WHAT??
So. If this thing runs linux, and linux is GPL, they have to make available the source for the device's OS, right?
So if the full source is available for the thing, does that mean Random Q. Hacker might be able to code and compile his own OS for the device, from scratch? For example, to make something more Palm-OS-ish? Maybe implement a Mach or ExoKernel on the thing?
Or maybe something less extreme: Allowing hackers to help improve the OS to solve some of the gripes that you see posted here about an otherwise very open and cool-looking device?
Yeah yeah. This has been posted before. But it's interesting.
Maybe slashdot should have a bubble-up feature where old stories that get re-posted "come back" from the archives, complete with reviewable comments. That way, all the discussion for a particular "story" (in this case, the uCsimm) can be archived or discussed in one place.
Of course, I'm not gonna write the perl to get it done, so I'm not holding my breath:)
For example. I'm a GUI-loving wuss. I much prefer a GUI over a command line. But, I dislike gnome and kde and even Xfree for configuration.
Instead, I prefer linuxconf. It's ncurses-based. (It's gtk-based, too, but I use it in ncurses mode) Editing all those dotfiles by hand is, of course possible and would give me more control, but when I'm in unfamiliar territory, a menu-based configurator helps me learn what functionality is available to me.
I much prefer the DOS EDIT environment over that of emacs or VI. Because It's intuitive. I use VI because it is much more robust than DOS EDIT. A combination of the two would be a godsend for me.
I much prefer cfdisk and mandrake's partition table editor on install over FDISK. Not because it's pretty and skinned and colorful, but because it has a better interface, and that interface is (somewhat) intuitive. It describes visually what functionality is available to me in a way that is easy to grasp and picture in my head.
I much prefer GRUB to LILO. (not only for the interface, but it's a very nice touch.)
I much prefer SFM and MC to the command line when organizing my piles of ranomly downloaded MP3s.
I prefer MP3C to (cdparanoia $options|$encoder)
I prefer mutt to mail.
etc. etc. etc....
I haven't used Debian's configuration tool. But If I can infer from the comments, it seems that it would benefit from an ncurses-based menu system, or a better-designed one if it is already ncurses-based... to make it easier to use in the console.
PDA interfaces are generally designed for organizer type things, which can be reduced the a small set of functions that generally need to be accessed at the same time. Have you seen an HP calculator with all those keys? A stylus-driven menu system is much too slow and inconvient for the number of functions required by a modern programmable calculator. This is why even the most advanced Palm calculator software doesn't come close to the complexity inherant in these things; you may use it for quick 4-function calculations, but for hardcore stuff, you're going ditch that PDA and its clunky interface.
I wholehartedly disagree.
Then again, I only have experience on that old-ass POS TI-82 I used in Calculus. So my point of view is limited. But oh, how I have wished for a TI emulator for the Palm OS.
I find the TI-82's keyboard layout awkward and clunky compared to the flexibility that one might be able to build into a palm app. (OR! a springboard module, hint hint handspring!) For those familiar with the keypad layout, I'm sure a palm app could be devised which emulated the same on-screen.
Especially when programming. I've often wished for a QWERTY keypad layout on the calc. I can tap out the function names much faster than I can pull them up using the TI-82's menu system.
Are you going to sit in math class trying to tap your way through a tough calculus problem? I think not.
Given the possibilities of interface customization, the built in IR port (no TI-Link cable required!), the superior graphics and speed (again, TI-82 experience only)... I'd much prefer that route over the HP Calc. All it would really take is some planning, and good, intuitive interface design.
My science teacher, Mr. Caezza, back in high school, was slightly color-blind. We had a laserdisc with one of those color-blindness test circles on it (similar to the one on the story page, that has the figure 8 represented in a different color).
Upon hearing that he couldn't see anything in the field of dots, I promptly grabbed the "tint" knob on the teevee and twisted it back and forth. "WAIT! I SEE IT!" Sez he.
Try it sometime, if you're one of the affected individuals. You could probably do it with that image on the webpage and the GIMP or photoshop... just mess with the hue of the picture until the "8" appears.
Move all files starting with a-n to the parent directory
mv [a-n]*.. (bash)
a press-shift m up release-shift ctrl+x Backspace Ctrl+V (explorer)
Move them back:
Ctrl+z (explorer)
Not sure of the best way to do this with an existing CLI.
Conclusions:
Graphical file managers can be just as fast as CLIs for many operations.
For me, the only useful file manager is one that supports intuitive keybindings, and does not require a mouse to be efficiently operated. This is why I enjoy the pre-win98 explorer and why SFM has become one of my most treasured linux apps.
The problem I have with all file managers, possibly including Eazel, is the speed at which they do their work. I hate it so much when I arrow-key-navigate past a 300MB tiff in Windows Explorer and my system slows to a crawl trying to render a handy "preview" image I didn't even want to see in that particular case. Maybe easel will borrow from the 3d-videogame arena and have an option which renders in less detail as the system load increases.
If I were to build a desktop operating system/windowing system/file manager geared toward end users on desktop PC's, its first priority would be the user interface responsiveness. I don't care about disk writes, backup drives, underrunning CD-R's, whatever... the user interface, above all, must be perpetually snappy and responsive, no matter what else the system might want to do at the time. I get mad when my machine won't listen when I'm trying to tell it something. And I mean immediate. When that mouse button goes down, 1.5 seconds is far too long to wait for a popup menu.
If I were the designer of a windowing system and file manager, it would be a GUI at the very base-level (see the MacOS), and it would integrate a cool drag n drop GUI file manager with the BASH shell. As in, you could use a single keystroke to switch from GUI-Mode to terminal-mode. (Terminal using antialiased fonts, of course.) From there, maybe version 2 could implement a Mozshell-like blend to create a terminal that is supplemented with graphics. Anytbody know of existing software that approximates this?
Comments, whatever. Apologies for the poor grammar and lack of focus. I'm just textually mumbling to myself at this point.
Slashdot Mirror
I concur.
Legislation only serves to screw the Guy With Less Money. When and if these laws do get passed, it will only be a matter of time before some big corporation uses them, not to defeat spam, but as a good excuse put the financial hurt on other corporations. Or instead, to silence the unhappy customer. "The e-mail that you, Joe Consumer, sent to complaints@company.com, was unsolicited. We're suing you for damages. See you in court, unless of course you prefer to accept our benevolent generousity and settle for a mere $250.00."
Technology is the only correct way to solve the spam problem. Trying to solve problems in trigger-happy legalese America with new laws is just throwing gas on the fire.
This situation has been approaching for a while now.
What will the ALA, librarians, and book publishers around the world say, what insanely stupid legislation will they lobby to enact, when people begin to creating legitimate electronic duplicates of books and other printed material under their fair use rights?
I'll tell you what. The DMCA. All over again. And worse. Applied to literature, rather than music. You heard it here first.
But one thing still puzzles me. Typically, librarians are super cool people, full of common-sense, against stupid legislation like that of internet censorship. (See also one of my most favorite 'sites on the net.) I wonder what the reaction to electronification of information will be of the level-headed, pro-freedom librarians of the world. Will it be librarians vs. publishers and the ALA, side-by-side with programmers and technophiles vs. the MPAA and RIAA?
What needs to happen is a complete and total revolution and upheaval in the way we think about intellectual "property" and copyright law. But that will, of course, never happen in our corporate-ruled capitalist soceity.
I think it's time to pay a visit, and hit the information desk. It's been way too long since I visited the local library.
I'm one of the "good software can make up for cheap hardware" camp. Flame on, whatever.
I'd probably buy one of these. If the introductory price is $89, that means it could fall, too.
I speculated that something like this might occur when PCChips, a motherboard manufacturing company that creates a lot of cheap, sexy form factor all-in-one boards, released their EPD30 model PDA. I purchase PCChips motherboards exclusively for use in my machines, and if this PDA is one made by them, I'll definitely purchase it, to support my favorite cheap-ass hardware manufacturing company. It certainly looks similar, from the one tiny picture I've found of it.
One reason I'm fond of PCChips is that they tend to use hardware that is standardized and usually has had its documentation published by the manufacturer. (SiS advertises themselves as "supporting linux".) Which means it's only a matter of time and code before it can work with an open-source operating system, and you don't get locked into using bastardized proprietary shit that you have to kowtow with an open wallet at some big industry CEO to get at. And if you have the skills, you can improve the way your system works just by writing and installing software.
Looks like it comes with a hotsync cable, not a cradle. Cool! I'm all for cheaper products through less extraneous plastic.
Does anybody have a more thourough review or better pictures of the hardware?
-Mike
Yes, I'm a masochistic software developer with a cheap hardware fetish. You probably wouldn't understand.
Why not just go all out like Microsoft when they released "Fury 3": hello? Where the fuck were the first two?
Heh, that was my first thought upon first seeing Armitage III
Didn't we just go through this with the e-book story?
There's no such thing as the "rental" of electronic information!
If you can view it on your screen, through a machine you own, you can make a digital duplicate of it! That's all there is to it, no matter how long the big companies try to struggle to come up with the next best way to cripple/encrypt the content that you have paid for.
And as soon as someone cracks whatever scheme they plan to use to "time-limit" the movies, we'll be seeing the lawsuits flying. As usual.
Until the media megacorporations realize and accept this (I'm not holding my breath waiting for that), we're just going to see the Skylarov incident and the DMCA invoked to hurt innocent people over and over and over again.
Windows crashed terribly. And Microsoft created Windows NT.
The original Zepplein crashed terribly. And now we have... the Zepplein NT.
This dosen't bode well for the stability of the aircraft.
My two cents. You might try appending "I think that ..." before every sentence below.
Argh. This will fail, for the same reason that the DMCA will eventually fail.
If we assume that we are using a device that you own and control (such as your personal computer), then what follows is a universal truth:
Companies who try to evade this universal truth by creating an artificial scarcity of information in an effort to make more money are doomed to failure. Of course, until they accept the hopelessness of trying, we are going to see companies flail about with their lawsuits and congress-bullying to get laws made to protect their budgets from the advancement of technology.
As the amount of available bandwidth continues to increase, I think greedy corporations that deal in the sale (or, rental) of information will finally have to stop suing the world and devise a new, sane to make money. Right now, corporations wish for us to think of information as a scarce, limited-availability, tangable substance. Because companies that deal in the sale of limited-availability tangable substances can command a good price. While electronic information is becoming an unlimited-availability, non-tangable substance, money-hungry companies would have consumers think otherwise through the misuse of laws and congress-bullying. This is why this book-rental idea, and the DMCA, are so stupid.
Predictions:
In the coming decades, as technology improves, I think information in and of itself will become much less monitarily valuable. Instead, the real value will have to be placed on the immediacy of the information. Meaning: Information can and will be disseminated. But, some may wish to pay a premium to be the ones to get at said information first. And that is where the value will lie.
Some folks have also compared this scheme to Blockbuster Video. You can charge rent for a video because said video is a scarce, limited-availability, tangable substance. Namely, a videocassette containing a video in a conveinient-to-use format. You cannot, however charge "rent" for an electronic representation of said video. Because once that electronic representation exists, it instantly becomes an unlimited-availability, non-tangable substance. You can, however, Still charge rent for the conveinience of using a videocassette.
Let's look at music. You can command a huge price for a live performance. You can charge a decent price for a conveinient-to-use piece of media containing a musical performance. But once that media can be read and represented in an electronic format, the representation of that performance loses all value except for that of the immediacy of its availablity.
Let's look at literature. You can command a huge price for a piece of literature written just for a client. (Say, documentation, or a poem, or a biography... etc.) You can charge a decent price for a conveinient-to-use piece of media containing a work of literature. But once that media can be read and represented in an electronic format, the representation of that work loses all value except for that of the immediacy of its availablity. So, as soon as there exists a device which can rip a paperback book into an electronic format the with the speed and ease that a cd-rom can rip cd-audio into an electronic format, we will see the same DMCA, IP, and copyright turmoil in the literary industry that we currently see in the music industry. Even if the DMCA has already been overturned and forgotten about.
This is just the way it looks to me like things will work out. I don't advocate for artists making less money in the future, or for "stealing" the electronic representations of an artist's work. But I think the approaching shift in the way things work will really show the world how much the creators of information are really worth to the consumers of their information. And how much more valuable a live performance is than a recorded one. People will be paying for quality of information, rather than availability.
-Mike
(Who just purchased two music CDs after he had downloaded and evaluated the electronic representations of their entire contents.)
css-auth.c contains 6856 bytes of text devoted to building several tables used in the CSS decoding.
Those tables look a little like this:
static byte Table0[] = {
...
0xB7, 0xF4, 0x82, 0x57, 0xDA, 0x4D, 0xDB, 0xE2,
0x2F, 0x52, 0x1A, 0xA8, 0x68, 0x5A, 0x8A, 0xFF,
0xFB, 0x0E, 0x6D, 0x35, 0xF7, 0x5C, 0x76, 0x12,
I'm too lazy and not skilled enough of a programmer to completely understand the way the DeCSS (css-auth.c) code works. So I was wondering if anybody could enlighten me (or give me a URL to study) as to how Charles H. Hannum's 442-byte program is able to accomplish the same task as was previously bloated by the inclusion of those tables.
Does the program functionally regenerate the tables? Or is it something else?
This guy has done it. There also used to be a company in Upstate NY that manufactured, among other things, fully wooden (cherry and oak) keyboards, but I've forgotten the URL. It was mentioned on Slashdot before, in one of the many articles titled "The best keyboard in the world?" (or something).
Since last I saw them mentioned on Slashdot, ColorCases has added some fully translucent all-plastic cases.
They also have some other new designs, for example the $99 shiny "USB Stainless Blue."
But please, somebody tell them that their new site design blows.
I've been lately going to my local CompUSA to drool over the itty bitty Crusoe-powered VAIO notbook (the one with the built-in camera.)
I'm elated that there's multiple vendors out there planning to ship Crusoe laptops. The only thing keeping me from purchasing the VAIO (besides lack of money) is the proprietary sony memory-stick bullshit that I refuse to support.
Can't wait to play with one of these.
What programming skills should amateur developers, like me, go out and learn in order to be able to positively contribute to the Debian GNU/Hurd project?
Ah yes. Because the BookPC has no expansion slots. My bad.
You sure?
I have used other PCChips mobo's with the built-on NIC, with an additional NIC, as a router. (It's actually on my other desk, running right now!)
Admittedly, I have not done this with the BookPC unit. Maybe they're different in that respect, although it seems unlikely.
-Mike
If you're not a "Name brand motherboard elitist"... PCChips makes some sweet looking "BookPCs". They're geared toward set-top DVD playback, and are certainly not applicable to "embedded linux." But they may be better for some than the water-cooled box with a 8MB disk-chip.
These links are to a merchant site with good photos and info:
I'm all about commodity hardware.
Lyra?? Yuck! You must enjoy having to *encrypt* all your MP3s using proprietary software (RealJukebox) before loading them into a portable music player. I'd never buy that piece of shit.
Why couldn't RMS say "grant approval" instead of "give forgiveness"? Form my perspective, RMS's choice of words is the catalyst for the entire debate and the cause for much frustration and anger in the KDE camp.
RMS, according to some, was using the term "forgive" in a legal, and not a moral sense. This was taken by the KDE developers (and by myself the first three times I read RMS's post) in a moral sense.
If "forgive" is indeed a legal term, (I've never heard it used in a legal context) it certainly should have been replaced with something a little less inflammatory. Then, I'd say, RMS still has ground to stand on, although his tact is still quite lacking.
If RMS did indeed mean that KDE has some sort of moral obligation to anything in this issue of strict legalities, then RMS is simply a prick, riding of the coattails of his mostly successful tirade of anal-retentiveness.
Either way, It's my opinion that RMS needs to issue a formal apology to the KDE team and clarify his article, without putting his own bias toward GNOME behind it. KDE is trying to help out the community here.
Radical proponent for justice and freedom or not, he should still be tactful and unbiased for matters like this one.
I think it's a pitty mac os X will never run on intel. I'm unhappy with both linux (no decent UI) and windows (decent UI but unstable).
<cheesy advertisement>
Give BeOS a try. If it works with your hardware, you'll likely be impressed. It has my favorite aspects of MacOS (pretty, responsive UI) and Linux (stable, has the bash shell). It comes bundled with a decent web browser, too.
I just gave it a try this past weekend and I know I'm hooked. BeOS Personal Edition
</cheesy advertisement>
Oh, and it runs on Intel AND PowerPC already.
Some college kid decides to rip off Linux.com, so taco decides to slashdot the kid?
I bet this is affecting the available bandwidth of the school's internet connection.
If you ask me, slashdotting this guy was just mean. The issue should be discusssed between Linux.com and the poor college kid running a webserver on the box he needs to use to write his term papers. If there is indeed an issue at all.
If he were trying to make money, or if he had put his site on his resume, or if he were some company, then I could see the worth in this story. But some college kid? SO WHAT??
So. If this thing runs linux, and linux is GPL, they have to make available the source for the device's OS, right?
So if the full source is available for the thing, does that mean Random Q. Hacker might be able to code and compile his own OS for the device, from scratch? For example, to make something more Palm-OS-ish? Maybe implement a Mach or ExoKernel on the thing?
Or maybe something less extreme: Allowing hackers to help improve the OS to solve some of the gripes that you see posted here about an otherwise very open and cool-looking device?
I'd be interested in it just for the hack value!
Yeah yeah. This has been posted before. But it's interesting.
:)
Maybe slashdot should have a bubble-up feature where old stories that get re-posted "come back" from the archives, complete with reviewable comments. That way, all the discussion for a particular "story" (in this case, the uCsimm) can be archived or discussed in one place.
Of course, I'm not gonna write the perl to get it done, so I'm not holding my breath
GUI need not mean "pixels."
For example. I'm a GUI-loving wuss. I much prefer a GUI over a command line. But, I dislike gnome and kde and even Xfree for configuration.
Instead, I prefer linuxconf. It's ncurses-based. (It's gtk-based, too, but I use it in ncurses mode) Editing all those dotfiles by hand is, of course possible and would give me more control, but when I'm in unfamiliar territory, a menu-based configurator helps me learn what functionality is available to me.
I much prefer the DOS EDIT environment over that of emacs or VI. Because It's intuitive. I use VI because it is much more robust than DOS EDIT. A combination of the two would be a godsend for me.
I much prefer cfdisk and mandrake's partition table editor on install over FDISK. Not because it's pretty and skinned and colorful, but because it has a better interface, and that interface is (somewhat) intuitive. It describes visually what functionality is available to me in a way that is easy to grasp and picture in my head.
I much prefer GRUB to LILO. (not only for the interface, but it's a very nice touch.)
I much prefer SFM and MC to the command line when organizing my piles of ranomly downloaded MP3s.
I prefer MP3C to (cdparanoia $options|$encoder)
I prefer mutt to mail.
etc. etc. etc....
I haven't used Debian's configuration tool. But If I can infer from the comments, it seems that it would benefit from an ncurses-based menu system, or a better-designed one if it is already ncurses-based... to make it easier to use in the console.
I wholehartedly disagree.
Then again, I only have experience on that old-ass POS TI-82 I used in Calculus. So my point of view is limited. But oh, how I have wished for a TI emulator for the Palm OS.
I find the TI-82's keyboard layout awkward and clunky compared to the flexibility that one might be able to build into a palm app. (OR! a springboard module, hint hint handspring!) For those familiar with the keypad layout, I'm sure a palm app could be devised which emulated the same on-screen.
Especially when programming. I've often wished for a QWERTY keypad layout on the calc. I can tap out the function names much faster than I can pull them up using the TI-82's menu system.
Are you going to sit in math class trying to tap your way through a tough calculus problem? I think not.
Given the possibilities of interface customization, the built in IR port (no TI-Link cable required!), the superior graphics and speed (again, TI-82 experience only)... I'd much prefer that route over the HP Calc. All it would really take is some planning, and good, intuitive interface design.
My science teacher, Mr. Caezza, back in high school, was slightly color-blind. We had a laserdisc with one of those color-blindness test circles on it (similar to the one on the story page, that has the figure 8 represented in a different color).
Upon hearing that he couldn't see anything in the field of dots, I promptly grabbed the "tint" knob on the teevee and twisted it back and forth. "WAIT! I SEE IT!" Sez he.
Try it sometime, if you're one of the affected individuals. You could probably do it with that image on the webpage and the GIMP or photoshop... just mess with the hue of the picture until the "8" appears.
I agree, and would like to offer these comments:
Compare the speed of:
Move all files to parent directory
Move all files starting with a-n to the parent directory
Move them back:
Conclusions:
- Graphical file managers can be just as fast as CLIs for many operations.
- For me, the only useful file manager is one that supports intuitive keybindings, and does not require a mouse to be efficiently operated. This is why I enjoy the pre-win98 explorer and why SFM has become one of my most treasured linux apps.
The problem I have with all file managers, possibly including Eazel, is the speed at which they do their work. I hate it so much when I arrow-key-navigate past a 300MB tiff in Windows Explorer and my system slows to a crawl trying to render a handy "preview" image I didn't even want to see in that particular case. Maybe easel will borrow from the 3d-videogame arena and have an option which renders in less detail as the system load increases.If I were to build a desktop operating system/windowing system/file manager geared toward end users on desktop PC's, its first priority would be the user interface responsiveness. I don't care about disk writes, backup drives, underrunning CD-R's, whatever... the user interface, above all, must be perpetually snappy and responsive, no matter what else the system might want to do at the time. I get mad when my machine won't listen when I'm trying to tell it something. And I mean immediate. When that mouse button goes down, 1.5 seconds is far too long to wait for a popup menu.
If I were the designer of a windowing system and file manager, it would be a GUI at the very base-level (see the MacOS), and it would integrate a cool drag n drop GUI file manager with the BASH shell. As in, you could use a single keystroke to switch from GUI-Mode to terminal-mode. (Terminal using antialiased fonts, of course.) From there, maybe version 2 could implement a Mozshell-like blend to create a terminal that is supplemented with graphics. Anytbody know of existing software that approximates this?
Comments, whatever. Apologies for the poor grammar and lack of focus. I'm just textually mumbling to myself at this point.