That actually raises a serious question. What about the pigs they were genetically modifying to use as a supply of organs for human transplant recipients?
I don't recall them using human genetics in these pigs-they were just manipulating what was there, trying for reduced rejection rates. But I would think progress in this area would eventually lead to incorporating some human genetics eventually, and pigs are extremely like us physiologically.
What happens if we discover a way to use say, lizard genetics in human medicine to enable an amputee regrow their limb, like a lizard regrows it's tail? Yeah, I know...crazy talk. But saying the Earth might be round was crazy talk at one time also.
...with the living cow with the hole in its side for tourists to put their hand in a living stomach (fun for the family!)...
The purpose is not for tourist's entertainment.
Most Universities with a Veterinary Medicine program will have a cow with a 'cannula' into it's rumen as a means to extract some of the fluid content for the clinical treatment of other bovine patients that have suffered some digestive disease, or (frequently) after treatment with antibiotics(which kill rumen flora, unabling the cow to digest their food).
How it usually works: You have 'Bessie' the donor cow. She has a 'hole' in her side as you say. (cannula into her rumen)
You also have 'Gertrude', who has been a patient receiving antibiotics in treatment. She is 'getting better' and the antibiotic treatment ceases. Your treatment has killed off most of the natural microbes that help Gertrude ferment(start digestion) of her food she eats. Left on her own, she may starve to death no matter how much she eats.
Enter Bessie to the rescue. You remove the plug in the cannula(it may have been removed for your tour, but normally the plug is kept in place), extract several gallons of rumen fluid(chock full of healthy microbe goodness), and 'tube feed' it to Gertrude. You also replace Bessie's rumen fluid with equal amount of warm water, and replace the plug.
Gertrude can now continue living and eating thanks to the hole in Bessie's side!
Not some 'mad scientist crazy experiment', but sound, helpful, humane medicine. I used to have to deal with this attitude from people all the time when I worked at the Vet Med Teaching Hospital at the University here.
...but I still can not read her mind (even after 16 years...)
That statement was all I needed to make up my mind you have and are "Walk the Walk, and just not Talk' on this subject!
As p-poster stated you truly have no idea how you will feel about YOUR children until you have some of your own either through birth or adoption.
That poses an interesting question for me. How much influence did your natural children[having come first] have on the depth/nature/ease of bonding with the adopted ones? I mean we share no hereditary/genetic bond, just environmental.
I'm not expecting you to have 'my answer', but any insight you feel you have, I would welcome the benefits of them.
I had a vasectomy right after getting out of the Army, thus I have no children of my own. I did end up with a woman that had a 4 year old daughter, the daughter is now 18.(so ya got 2 years seniority in the married dept.!) There are times I 'forget' that she is not mine, but after hearing from other 'natural' parents, I still think my bond with my daughter is different, not having as many 'levels' as it would be if she were mine. I don't see where I could care for her and love her any more than I do, but I wonder if there are levels of the relationship we just don't have access to. Does that make any sense?
Most likely the person making me make that choice would have to take the hit or kill me first.
Yeah. I concur, and suspect there is no hubris in that statement at all. I feel the same way, very strongly.
Would you also agree with the consequences of this logical chain?
No. First, it is not logical, second even if you edited it to make it logical, my answer is still no.
Would you start throwing babies and then young children off a sinking boat based on the theory that society does not have as much invested in their productivity?
If the boat is sinking, does it matter who gets tossed first, or if anyone gets tossed at all? They are all fishbait in your scenario. I say toss out anyone that can swim, and let the rest stay onboard and hope the ship does not fully sink...might get lucky.
A better solution would be toss them into life jackets/boats. And usually when this situation occurs, remember the phrase:"Women and children first"? This prevalent attitude diffuses your whole point.
Either your reading comprehension is sub-par, or you just want an argument. I vote for the latter, as I find it difficult to believe you suck so thoroughly at understanding what you read.
All of the questions you ask, he answered before you asked:
Now, once they're born, children are the center of their parents' lives. We invest all our waking hours in them. Within the first month of their lives, we sacrifice our former selves to their development and wellbeing. They are the heart and soul of our home life. We run our finances on the edge to ensure they have a comfortable, safe, and stimulating environment.
As for your mindless ranting about 'values':
For that matter what is this term "value"? Is it how much money you are willing to spend to obtain one?
He never alluded to monetary values, that is purely your clueless twist. The only time he even mentioned value was in a completely different context:
Actually, no point of view would "coincide with the values of our society", because there is such a wide range of views.
[my emphasis]
Note that he is replying to a phrase(hint:it is in between the quote marks) that has nothing to do with money.
Congratulations on painting yourself as an imbecile with a broad brush! Well and thoroughly done!
...your point does not coincide with the values of our society....
Who is 'our' in this case? It apparently does not include the society in the USA that I've seen. Your comment nonsense in the society I am a part of and know about.
To para phrase Bill Cosby from his 'Himself'[1982-track #4:'Kill the Boy'] album: *comparison of Mom and Dad talking to errant son* Mom to son: "You're going to drive me to my grave!" Dad to son: "I'm going to drive you to your grave. Brought you into this world, I can take you out...make another one just like you!"
So this is far from some new trend in thinking in our society.
And yes, society has been receptive of this for a looooong time! The subject has came up in literature, theater, and movies/TV shows all along, with no moral outrage addressed to 'putting mom's life first' in these circumstances.
You must have led a very sheltered, naive, and myopic existence. I guess your little isolated society you speak of being a part of failed to get the memo many generations ago?
This was only a probe in the upcoming 'Online Streaming Media Market Wars'. This was meant to do two things: 1. inhibit competition for online streaming media services (netflix, etc.) 2. attempt to help prop up declining numbers of TV viewers (loss of ad revenue)
They are far from done. Expect them to try something else, as they all see it as too lucrative a market to pass up. They have been advertising their versions of the very things they are complaining about 'taking up too much bandwidth'. I call B.S.
Most home users have not had a sysadmin/tech disable the autorun function. By default, it is enabled(up into XP-haven't used Vista or W7); and the combination autorun-enabled and admin permissions for a default home user Windows computer is the roots to much of the evil.
I hear Vista and W7 are/will be much better, and I think that's great, but there are still a bunch of home users online with XP. Easy pickings for those wanting to build a bot net, or other slimy scheme.
I have had a 'test and destroy' PC that I use to try different *nix distros, and usually have WINE and ies4linux installed. Every bit of crap that hits the news, or I stumble across, I try to run it with WINE or open IE 6 and go to that sight. Other than IE 6 and/or WINE crashing, I've not been able to detect any malware actually making an install. Usually nothing even makes it to the c:/windows/temp folder in.wine, or even appears to happen. Been trying this for about two years now, and no success to date.
I won't say that it can't happen, just that with every GNU/Linux distro** I've tried: no go. YMMV
**Fedora, Red Hat, CENT OS, Mandrake, Mandriva, Suse, Mint, Ubuntu, Kubuntu...those are the ones I remember.
I'd mod you up if I could...Well said. I am certainly guilty of smugness when I see these malware du jour articles, because I use Kubuntu. This specific attack would probably work on Kubuntu. Craft it as foo-ur-pwned_0.32-x86-64.deb, if it asks for your sudo password, and you give it...well, you did ask for it.[1]
The only way to avoid this would be to prevent any 3rd party software installs-nothing but signed software from the 'official' repository. (replace repo. with Apple, MS, whoever)
That would go down like a turd in a swimming pool.
Users would revolt, developers would mutiny, time would stop, etc...
I could argue that I could get the source code(if available), and check that, but most people running Linux don't do so routinely. In my case, I don't bother because I would have no clue what I was looking at, much less what to look for. The most programming/coding I know, is getting links to work here on/.(and I cheat at that!)
Personally, I just stick with my repo and a few select third parties, and hope my trust is not violated. I do know enough to be wary of 'outside' stuff, but I learned that lesson 15 years ago.
Build an idiot proof device, and the world immediately builds a better idiot to prove you a liar
[1] I occasionally hear someone, having been surprised, remark:"Well fuck me!", "Well fuck me runnin!", or some similar version, and have to mentally chuckle as I picture what the look on their face would be like if someone just grabbed them, yanked their pants down/skirt up, and did as expressed.
Well there are many ways to get installed, the easiest for Windows users would just dbl. click it. If you have never ran an exe file before, it will ask what to open it with...WINE will be on the list of options, select WINE, and off ya go.
Or, you can right-click on the exe, and select 'open with WINE'. Exactly the way the WoW installer works on Windows. It truly is no different...it even ends up in your applications menu.
Seriously, just dbl click and watch it install, or r.click and open with WINE and watch it install. Is it easier with Windows? No, or at least not on XP. I have done both. It actually installs quicker in WINE on Kubuntu 8.04 than it did on XP-same machine, same HDD...dual boot to diff partitions. And it ran smoother with faster f.p.s. rates in WINE on Kubuntu than it did on XP Pro SP3.
So, for the same exact install proceedure,faster install, and with the bonus of better performance, *nix plus WINE is easier.
Linux hasn't gone anywhere because it's a terrible platform for ISV's to develop on. OSS software cannot replace commercial software completely, and as such, until GNU/Linux makes an effort to make life easier for commercial developers, Linux on the desktop will never amount to anything.
As long as developers are bitching and whining about the difficulty of using F/OSS and GNU/Linux for proprietary, locked code, then all is good with the world, as the GPL2/3 license is working correctly as designed.
F/OSS and GNU/Linux is aimed at end-user control of the software. Proprietary software vendors and their developers are the antithesis of F/OSS and GNU/Linux. Only the fanatics are trying to take over the world, not most of us.
Your 'ISV's' are wanting to maintain control of the software after development and released/sold/whatever, which is diametrically opposite of F/OSS and GNU/Linux.
Obligatory/. car analogy:
It's like complaining that your sedan can't haul a cargo container readily...and it does not matter from which side you are arguing!...It's like hearing a multitude of Chewbacca Defenses.
GNU/Linux will never take over the world, despite a few fanatics that proclaim otherwise. It was never intended to. It was made for those that wanted the freedom to hack their computers, to do what they wanted to do their way. To make sure it stayed that way, the GPLx stepped in.
What I use is what I am happy with, what anyone else cares to use...not my business or my problem. The only time it really even comes to my notice is when others come to me with their computer problems, which happens frequently. Those that are open to the idea, I will either set them up with a) a live cd b)dual boot c)full *nix install. Those also get support by me when they need it. Everyone else, I help them back up their 'stuff', and advise them to nuke and fresh install, or take it to someone who is willing to work on Windows to do it for them.
I think most people's phones can play music these days. Is it poorly implemented music software, lack of support (hardware/software), lack of awareness or just plain old "I have to look cool with my iPod at the gym"?
I would say there are some of both involved wit some, but I think many see an mp3 player as a way to get away from charging their phone's battery more often.
Note: I can't speak from any experience...never owned either device, but I'm going by comments I have seen by many to that effect here on slashdot in past discussions.:-)
He hadn't used it in years because it was too inconvenient to maintain his music collection.
That directly relates to something I have not seen mentioned here regarding mp3 players.
"Plays For Sure"(tm) and the whole DRM fiasco.
The iPod/iTunes package gave Windows users a consistent means/interface to manage their music and player. With other mp3 players, you had to use either the 3rd party software that came with it, or Windows Media Player. Most people in the Windows world are conditioned to install the driver/software cd that comes with the hardware...and most don't think of WMP. All of these app's worked differently.
What does this have to do with DRM? Depending on the mp3 itself(DRM? What kind, if so?), some 3rd party software would not transfer the DRM 'bits' with the mp3 resulting in a file on the player you can see, takes up space, but will not playback. Many people were savvy enough to rip mp3's from cd's using WMP, but with the defaults, WMP adds DRM while ripping.(it can be turned of if you know where to dig into the settings to turn off 'copy protect my music') These mp3's would not playback on mp3 players when loaded by the 'drag_n_drop' method using Explorer. If you sync'ed the player with WMP, they would work. The same with those subscription services that used the MS 'Plays For Sure' protocol. It became a confused tangle of a plethora of 'end to end' attempts.
I worked tech support for Creative Labs up until about 6 months after the first iPods hit the market, and dealt with all of this crap repeatedly...and daily.
*LOL!!!* I still chuckle about the PHB's at CL reaction to the iPod!!! They were scared shitless!...apparently with good reason.
I think the whole 'Plays For Sure' mess had to have helped iPod sales! Then MS' own Zune would not work with their own 'Plays For Sure'. Egads!
So let them just click. It's been a few years since you needed mad CLI skills for most Distros.
The CLI is still there for those not afraid of their computer, so 'stuff' can be done quicker and easier than limiting themselves to the GUI, but the GUI is there, and has been for a few years.
When I started using *nix exclusively, it was over a year before I even opened a CLI. Since then, I won't use an OS without a good CLI.
Are you on dial-up? I've never experienced the behavior you describe on a *nix machine. But that is specifically one of my gripes about Windows and especially their Windows Update.
This past weekend, I installed Kubuntu 8.04, it had hundreds[not 10] packages to update. I set it to update, switched desktops and got on slashdot with no problems. Try that while Windows is updating!
I can't speak for any but Kubuntu 9.04, but that has been addressed with Jaunty. (I tried to find something similar in 8.04 and 8.10 and did not find it)
In 9.04, go to Kmenu>system settings>Advanced tab>PolicyKit Authorization>expand 'org.freedesktop'>the PackageKit Project has what you are looking for.
I did not spend much time exploring the 8.04/10, it may be there in a different place, but I seem to remember sometime in the past when installing a third party(not in repo) app, the install asking if it should be restricted to current user, or global. I only remember seeing this once though. My memory may well be lying to me also....
HaHaHaHa! Before you can get to the Bestbuy, I'll have selected those app's, downloaded, installed and configured them to use- and never touch a command line if I want to go about it the 'slow' way by using the super friendly, self explanatory, and easy GUI for the package manager. Oh, and not have to"Oh, yeah, and then click through the automatic updaters that run immediately afterwards."
I don't even have to know the name of the program, the package manager gives a good description of every piece of software in the repo when in GUI mode. It is all divided in categories, listed alphabetically.
You're confusing "cheap," "efficient," and "quick" with "easy."
No, your are the one confused. (hint: I'll have my install done, work done with the needed app, and be sitting in my recliner watching the game sipping a cold one while you are still mucking about with your PC-even if you Bestbuy is close by!)
Slashdot Mirror
I hope this won't be like what happens in the US where the company deletes data, but when pressured by the courts, they happen to recover a backup.
And when the courts pressure the gov't. for data, it's lost/unrecoverable.
Sometimes I just have to wonder....
Those that ignore/forget history, are doomed to repeat it.
Very myopic view you have there, good luck with that.
I beg to differ.
Where do you think said senator came from in the first place!
Watch your legislature in action sometime, it's like hanging around the stockyards...except the shit piles up faster.
That actually raises a serious question.
What about the pigs they were genetically modifying to use as a supply of organs for human transplant recipients?
I don't recall them using human genetics in these pigs-they were just manipulating what was there, trying for reduced rejection rates.
But I would think progress in this area would eventually lead to incorporating some human genetics eventually, and pigs are extremely like us physiologically.
What happens if we discover a way to use say, lizard genetics in human medicine to enable an amputee regrow their limb, like a lizard regrows it's tail?
Yeah, I know...crazy talk. But saying the Earth might be round was crazy talk at one time also.
...with the living cow with the hole in its side for tourists to put their hand in a living stomach (fun for the family!)...
The purpose is not for tourist's entertainment.
Most Universities with a Veterinary Medicine program will have a cow with a 'cannula' into it's rumen as a means to extract some of the fluid content for the clinical treatment of other bovine patients that have suffered some digestive disease, or (frequently) after treatment with antibiotics(which kill rumen flora, unabling the cow to digest their food).
How it usually works:
You have 'Bessie' the donor cow. She has a 'hole' in her side as you say. (cannula into her rumen)
You also have 'Gertrude', who has been a patient receiving antibiotics in treatment. She is 'getting better' and the antibiotic treatment ceases.
Your treatment has killed off most of the natural microbes that help Gertrude ferment(start digestion) of her food she eats. Left on her own, she may starve to death no matter how much she eats.
Enter Bessie to the rescue. You remove the plug in the cannula(it may have been removed for your tour, but normally the plug is kept in place), extract several gallons of rumen fluid(chock full of healthy microbe goodness), and 'tube feed' it to Gertrude.
You also replace Bessie's rumen fluid with equal amount of warm water, and replace the plug.
Gertrude can now continue living and eating thanks to the hole in Bessie's side!
Not some 'mad scientist crazy experiment', but sound, helpful, humane medicine. I used to have to deal with this attitude from people all the time when I worked at the Vet Med Teaching Hospital at the University here.
...but I still can not read her mind (even after 16 years...)
That statement was all I needed to make up my mind you have and are "Walk the Walk, and just not Talk' on this subject!
As p-poster stated you truly have no idea how you will feel about YOUR children until you have some of your own either through birth or adoption.
That poses an interesting question for me. How much influence did your natural children[having come first] have on the depth/nature/ease of bonding with the adopted ones?
I mean we share no hereditary/genetic bond, just environmental.
I'm not expecting you to have 'my answer', but any insight you feel you have, I would welcome the benefits of them.
I had a vasectomy right after getting out of the Army, thus I have no children of my own. I did end up with a woman that had a 4 year old daughter, the daughter is now 18.(so ya got 2 years seniority in the married dept.!)
There are times I 'forget' that she is not mine, but after hearing from other 'natural' parents, I still think my bond with my daughter is different, not having as many 'levels' as it would be if she were mine.
I don't see where I could care for her and love her any more than I do, but I wonder if there are levels of the relationship we just don't have access to. Does that make any sense?
Most likely the person making me make that choice would have to take the hit or kill me first.
Yeah. I concur, and suspect there is no hubris in that statement at all. I feel the same way, very strongly.
BTW, that was a well crafted and powerful post.
Would you also agree with the consequences of this logical chain?
No. First, it is not logical, second even if you edited it to make it logical, my answer is still no.
Would you start throwing babies and then young children off a sinking boat based on the theory that society does not have as much invested in their productivity?
If the boat is sinking, does it matter who gets tossed first, or if anyone gets tossed at all? They are all fishbait in your scenario. I say toss out anyone that can swim, and let the rest stay onboard and hope the ship does not fully sink...might get lucky.
A better solution would be toss them into life jackets/boats. And usually when this situation occurs, remember the phrase:"Women and children first"? This prevalent attitude diffuses your whole point.
Either your reading comprehension is sub-par, or you just want an argument.
I vote for the latter, as I find it difficult to believe you suck so thoroughly at understanding what you read.
All of the questions you ask, he answered before you asked:
As for your mindless ranting about 'values':
For that matter what is this term "value"? Is it how much money you are willing to spend to obtain one?
He never alluded to monetary values, that is purely your clueless twist. The only time he even mentioned value was in a completely different context:
Actually, no point of view would "coincide with the values of our society", because there is such a wide range of views.
[my emphasis]
Note that he is replying to a phrase(hint:it is in between the quote marks) that has nothing to do with money.
Congratulations on painting yourself as an imbecile with a broad brush! Well and thoroughly done!
...your point does not coincide with the values of our society....
Who is 'our' in this case? It apparently does not include the society in the USA that I've seen. Your comment nonsense in the society I am a part of and know about.
To para phrase Bill Cosby from his 'Himself'[1982-track #4:'Kill the Boy'] album:
*comparison of Mom and Dad talking to errant son*
Mom to son: "You're going to drive me to my grave!"
Dad to son: "I'm going to drive you to your grave. Brought you into this world, I can take you out...make another one just like you!"
So this is far from some new trend in thinking in our society.
And yes, society has been receptive of this for a looooong time! The subject has came up in literature, theater, and movies/TV shows all along, with no moral outrage addressed to 'putting mom's life first' in these circumstances.
You must have led a very sheltered, naive, and myopic existence. I guess your little isolated society you speak of being a part of failed to get the memo many generations ago?
Hear! Hear!
This was only a probe in the upcoming 'Online Streaming Media Market Wars'. This was meant to do two things:
1. inhibit competition for online streaming media services (netflix, etc.)
2. attempt to help prop up declining numbers of TV viewers (loss of ad revenue)
They are far from done. Expect them to try something else, as they all see it as too lucrative a market to pass up.
They have been advertising their versions of the very things they are complaining about 'taking up too much bandwidth'. I call B.S.
Most home users have not had a sysadmin/tech disable the autorun function. By default, it is enabled(up into XP-haven't used Vista or W7); and the combination autorun-enabled and admin permissions for a default home user Windows computer is the roots to much of the evil.
I hear Vista and W7 are/will be much better, and I think that's great, but there are still a bunch of home users online with XP. Easy pickings for those wanting to build a bot net, or other slimy scheme.
Auto-run enabled is not your friend...on any OS.
I have had a 'test and destroy' PC that I use to try different *nix distros, and usually have WINE and ies4linux installed. .wine, or even appears to happen. Been trying this for about two years now, and no success to date.
Every bit of crap that hits the news, or I stumble across, I try to run it with WINE or open IE 6 and go to that sight. Other than IE 6 and/or WINE crashing, I've not been able to detect any malware actually making an install. Usually nothing even makes it to the c:/windows/temp folder in
I won't say that it can't happen, just that with every GNU/Linux distro** I've tried: no go. YMMV
**Fedora, Red Hat, CENT OS, Mandrake, Mandriva, Suse, Mint, Ubuntu, Kubuntu...those are the ones I remember.
Is there anything a Mac can't do?
*drops dead from amazement*
Yeah, but sooner or later someone will 'Bring up the GIMP'!
"See, another thing that Photoshop can do better than GIMP!"
Watch and see. ;-)
I'd mod you up if I could...Well said.
I am certainly guilty of smugness when I see these malware du jour articles, because I use Kubuntu. This specific attack would probably work on Kubuntu. Craft it as foo-ur-pwned_0.32-x86-64.deb, if it asks for your sudo password, and you give it...well, you did ask for it.[1]
The only way to avoid this would be to prevent any 3rd party software installs-nothing but signed software from the 'official' repository. (replace repo. with Apple, MS, whoever)
That would go down like a turd in a swimming pool.
Users would revolt, developers would mutiny, time would stop, etc...
I could argue that I could get the source code(if available), and check that, but most people running Linux don't do so routinely. In my case, I don't bother because I would have no clue what I was looking at, much less what to look for. /.(and I cheat at that!)
The most programming/coding I know, is getting links to work here on
Personally, I just stick with my repo and a few select third parties, and hope my trust is not violated. I do know enough to be wary of 'outside' stuff, but I learned that lesson 15 years ago.
Build an idiot proof device, and the world immediately builds a better idiot to prove you a liar
[1] I occasionally hear someone, having been surprised, remark:"Well fuck me!", "Well fuck me runnin!", or some similar version, and have to mentally chuckle as I picture what the look on their face would be like if someone just grabbed them, yanked their pants down/skirt up, and did as expressed.
Well there are many ways to get installed, the easiest for Windows users would just dbl. click it. If you have never ran an exe file before, it will ask what to open it with...WINE will be on the list of options, select WINE, and off ya go.
Or, you can right-click on the exe, and select 'open with WINE'. Exactly the way the WoW installer works on Windows. It truly is no different...it even ends up in your applications menu.
Seriously, just dbl click and watch it install, or r.click and open with WINE and watch it install. Is it easier with Windows? No, or at least not on XP. I have done both. It actually installs quicker in WINE on Kubuntu 8.04 than it did on XP-same machine, same HDD...dual boot to diff partitions. And it ran smoother with faster f.p.s. rates in WINE on Kubuntu than it did on XP Pro SP3.
So, for the same exact install proceedure,faster install, and with the bonus of better performance, *nix plus WINE is easier.
You would lose that bet decisively, sir!
Damn spoiled kids now days.
Have to have wood ash now do ye?
In my day we chewed on sticks...and liked it!
*goes back to looking for misplaced dentures*
Linux hasn't gone anywhere because it's a terrible platform for ISV's to develop on. OSS software cannot replace commercial software completely, and as such, until GNU/Linux makes an effort to make life easier for commercial developers, Linux on the desktop will never amount to anything.
As long as developers are bitching and whining about the difficulty of using F/OSS and GNU/Linux for proprietary, locked code, then all is good with the world, as the GPL2/3 license is working correctly as designed.
F/OSS and GNU/Linux is aimed at end-user control of the software. Proprietary software vendors and their developers are the antithesis of F/OSS and GNU/Linux.
Only the fanatics are trying to take over the world, not most of us.
Your 'ISV's' are wanting to maintain control of the software after development and released/sold/whatever, which is diametrically opposite of F/OSS and GNU/Linux.
Obligatory /. car analogy:
It's like complaining that your sedan can't haul a cargo container readily...and it does not matter from which side you are arguing!...It's like hearing a multitude of Chewbacca Defenses.
GNU/Linux will never take over the world, despite a few fanatics that proclaim otherwise. It was never intended to. It was made for those that wanted the freedom to hack their computers, to do what they wanted to do their way. To make sure it stayed that way, the GPLx stepped in.
What I use is what I am happy with, what anyone else cares to use...not my business or my problem.
The only time it really even comes to my notice is when others come to me with their computer problems, which happens frequently. Those that are open to the idea, I will either set them up with a) a live cd b)dual boot c)full *nix install. Those also get support by me when they need it.
Everyone else, I help them back up their 'stuff', and advise them to nuke and fresh install, or take it to someone who is willing to work on Windows to do it for them.
I would say there are some of both involved wit some, but I think many see an mp3 player as a way to get away from charging their phone's battery more often.
Note: I can't speak from any experience...never owned either device, but I'm going by comments I have seen by many to that effect here on slashdot in past discussions. :-)
He hadn't used it in years because it was too inconvenient to maintain his music collection.
That directly relates to something I have not seen mentioned here regarding mp3 players.
"Plays For Sure"(tm) and the whole DRM fiasco.
The iPod/iTunes package gave Windows users a consistent means/interface to manage their music and player.
With other mp3 players, you had to use either the 3rd party software that came with it, or Windows Media Player. Most people in the Windows world are conditioned to install the driver/software cd that comes with the hardware...and most don't think of WMP. All of these app's worked differently.
What does this have to do with DRM?
Depending on the mp3 itself(DRM? What kind, if so?), some 3rd party software would not transfer the DRM 'bits' with the mp3 resulting in a file on the player you can see, takes up space, but will not playback.
Many people were savvy enough to rip mp3's from cd's using WMP, but with the defaults, WMP adds DRM while ripping.(it can be turned of if you know where to dig into the settings to turn off 'copy protect my music') These mp3's would not playback on mp3 players when loaded by the 'drag_n_drop' method using Explorer. If you sync'ed the player with WMP, they would work.
The same with those subscription services that used the MS 'Plays For Sure' protocol.
It became a confused tangle of a plethora of 'end to end' attempts.
I worked tech support for Creative Labs up until about 6 months after the first iPods hit the market, and dealt with all of this crap repeatedly...and daily.
*LOL!!!* I still chuckle about the PHB's at CL reaction to the iPod!!! They were scared shitless!...apparently with good reason.
I think the whole 'Plays For Sure' mess had to have helped iPod sales! Then MS' own Zune would not work with their own 'Plays For Sure'. Egads!
In short plan around what a user might do, and not what they should do.
Excellent advice!
The sad thing though, is after a stint at tech support, you realize that your imagination cannot grasp the reality of what your users may try! GHAHHH!
"Now, could you explain again how you got that LS-120 disc in your floppy drive...without a frickken' HAMMER?" [yes, I did get one of these calls!]
So let them just click. It's been a few years since you needed mad CLI skills for most Distros.
The CLI is still there for those not afraid of their computer, so 'stuff' can be done quicker and easier than limiting themselves to the GUI, but the GUI is there, and has been for a few years.
When I started using *nix exclusively, it was over a year before I even opened a CLI. Since then, I won't use an OS without a good CLI.
Are you on dial-up?
I've never experienced the behavior you describe on a *nix machine. But that is specifically one of my gripes about Windows and especially their Windows Update.
This past weekend, I installed Kubuntu 8.04, it had hundreds[not 10] packages to update. I set it to update, switched desktops and got on slashdot with no problems. Try that while Windows is updating!
I can't speak for any but Kubuntu 9.04, but that has been addressed with Jaunty. (I tried to find something similar in 8.04 and 8.10 and did not find it)
In 9.04, go to Kmenu>system settings>Advanced tab>PolicyKit Authorization>expand 'org.freedesktop'>the PackageKit Project has what you are looking for.
I did not spend much time exploring the 8.04/10, it may be there in a different place, but I seem to remember sometime in the past when installing a third party(not in repo) app, the install asking if it should be restricted to current user, or global. I only remember seeing this once though. My memory may well be lying to me also....
HaHaHaHa!
Before you can get to the Bestbuy, I'll have selected those app's, downloaded, installed and configured them to use- and never touch a command line if I want to go about it the 'slow' way by using the super friendly, self explanatory, and easy GUI for the package manager. Oh, and not have to "Oh, yeah, and then click through the automatic updaters that run immediately afterwards."
I don't even have to know the name of the program, the package manager gives a good description of every piece of software in the repo when in GUI mode. It is all divided in categories, listed alphabetically.
You're confusing "cheap," "efficient," and "quick" with "easy."
No, your are the one confused. (hint: I'll have my install done, work done with the needed app, and be sitting in my recliner watching the game sipping a cold one while you are still mucking about with your PC-even if you Bestbuy is close by!)