I propose a new acronym: IANASM I am not a smart man. eg. IANASM, but I do know what love is. IANASM, but maybe Bill Gates isn't so bad. IANASM, but I prefer the GPL because I don't want this software I've created to ever becom proprietary. IANASM, but I believe the benifits of BONOBO (sic? IANASM) are worth the extra wait. IANASM, and therefor, I still use Windows exclusively.
An alternative would be TWBMDB. This Will Be Moderated Down But TWBMDB I prefer the BSD license. It's more free. TWBMDB I like KDE. I prefer the OO approach to the desktop. TWBMDB I like karma and I don't care if you don't.
So decrypting information that a company wants to keep secret is now illegal? If I send information that I've rot13'ed and someone I don't want to read it rot13's it, can I sue them? Does that mean that I can post a zip file to an anonymous ftp site and specify that nobody unzip it and sue them if they do? Basically, the consortium is trying to sue someone for creating a tool to read information that they own.
It looks more like a lecture to me. Something along the lines of "Now if you'd put your bike in garage it wouldn't have been stolen. By the way, I hid it in the back yard so you'd know how it feels to have your bike stolen. Put your bike away and you won't feel like this again." Oh hell, that's the best example that came to mind.
Dvorak is the Rush Limgaugh of tech rags. He turns out a monthly one-page rant that can't even come close to Pournell (I'd gladly wade through references to "Lucille, my Compaq Presario...") for the little insight Pournell gives compared to Rush^WDvorak's "future of technology" type articles. Blech!
Is anyone familiar enough with the New York penal code to determine why the police would personally go to this man's house for the "unit" (wink wink nudge nudge)? I just want to know so I can accidentally send Gulianni some flowers and get the cops to go get them back for me.
I just thought of the most obvious thing that could possibly be patented now that they're allowing processes and thoughts to be patented: The Process of Elimination! I'll issue a press release: Process of Elimination patented by Foo Corp. Blah blah blah.
If I had enough money, I'd do this in a heartbeat. A method of troubleshooting by eliminating all choices but one by using a process of trial and error (patent pending) to find which choices give the desired effect and which don't.
I told my wife before Stallman suggested the boycott to not buy me books from amazon. It's not a big political statement, but I just don't want to reward them for their practices.
It looks like a "Creative Play Center" for Linux as well as a "Creative Launcher", etc. The sound card manufacturers feel this need to develope their own applications to do things like play a wav. play a cd. be a taskbar. record a wav. play midi files.
What the hell does Linux need with a Creative Launcher? What this will do is end up with a Liveware for Linux with a bunch of low quality sound related applications that have wierd bugs and assorted problems. I think Creative should customize GLP'ed audio apps with a Creative logo, write a good help file documenting everything, and allow anybody to download it. Beats the hell out of proprietary audio apps that don't work as well as their GPL'ed counterparts.
Isn't it more likely that this guy paid with credit card and a waiter wrote the number down? If I were going to commit credit card fraud I'd just get a job at Red Lobster and start writing.
This, more than anything, shows me that John C. cares about the product that he releases. He's statistically comparing the number of 3dfx support emails per capita to the number of nVidia emails. This absolutely doesn't upset me. I'm not keeping what video card I have or what operating system I'm running a state secret. I'm guessing he didn't give the option of saying no every time it wants to send that information because of at least two reasons: A: It's be fscking annoying. B: All the paranoid people of the world would say no and their support emails in would affect the numbers.
Actually, he's probably trying to get his karma bumped a little. I used to post as soon as a story came out with a little non-contraversial comment that was either just a little insightful or just a little humorous, and get at least a point. Now, I've got karma of 82 or so, don't visit or post as much due to a recent promotion and less time on my hands, and I get karma just for Meta-Moderating as well as the chance to moderate every once in a while. What's his face should learn from my example and slow it down a little. More thought out comments will get you at least two points.
iD should offer the Windows binary for download for us that want to purchase the Linux version, and/or play Quake 3 arena on multiple systems, or multi-boot. That way we could vote for open source and still play the game under the evil scourge of operating systems on other machines in the house, or if speed is more important sometimes, etc.
How many different companies could MS be feasibly broken up into? It looks like the DOJ might be cool with 2 (applications/internet, and Operating systems). Who could lead the companies? Wouldn't MS have to split up the execs? Could Gates or Ballmer be involved in both companies?
Actually, a better solution would be to add a vanilla Voodoo2 card to the system so he could have the vastly superior TNT as well as the compatible with everything 3dfx card. If he wanted to play a game in Windows because most games don't support Linux (but they will in about a year) he could play in 32 bit color with a texture size larger than 256x256. Of course, he never said he had a TNT. He might have a TNT2 or even a 128ZX.
With my first run through of Cryptonomicon complete, it left me wondering which parts of the book were real and which came from the overactive imagination of Neal Stephenson. If you haven't read the book yet, I reccomend it. Maybe when I'm done reading it for the fourth time I'll let someone borrow it. Too bad each read takes longer than the preceeding one. The first took four days. The fourth will probably take about a month.
Most of these "legacy free" PCs run off of Intel's crippled 810 or 810e chipset. As far as I know, there's no X driver for the 810. So if you're cool with no Xwindows on these legacy free boxes, that's fine, but I'd first make sure they had either a BX chipset or a non-Intel chipset.
Is it just me or did the world just gain color? I feel like dancing around singing "Ding Dong the witch is dead!" This means good things for Caldera and any company that's suing Microsoft. They just have to say "Judge Jackson says Microsoft is a monopoly" rather than trying to prove it. MS is and will always be considered a monopoly. At least until they've gained considerable market share.
Computer manufacturers offer warranties on their products just like any other company that makes a product. When the part is defective, they issue a recall. Some, like Dell with the Western Digital issue are proactive and call their customers to let them know when the technician will be coming out to replace the drive. Others try to bury it under the rug. Neither really deserves sued. That's why we have places like the Better Business Bureau. You report a company for slow response, write letters to the CEO, call and complain because the product ise not working as designed, and I can't believe you wouldn't recieve service. I'd prefer to work with and buy products from a proactive company, but I sure can't see myself involved in a class action lawsuit against a pretty reputable company unless I wanted to damage them. I'd take care of the issue myself and maybe even take them to small claims court where the issue belongs. At least that way I would get full compensation.
That's all the rambling. If there's anything good in what I just said it's your responsibility to pick it out.
Slashdot Mirror
I propose a new acronym:
IANASM
I am not a smart man.
eg.
IANASM, but I do know what love is.
IANASM, but maybe Bill Gates isn't so bad.
IANASM, but I prefer the GPL because I don't want this software I've created to ever becom proprietary.
IANASM, but I believe the benifits of BONOBO (sic? IANASM) are worth the extra wait.
IANASM, and therefor, I still use Windows exclusively.
An alternative would be TWBMDB.
This Will Be Moderated Down But
TWBMDB I prefer the BSD license. It's more free.
TWBMDB I like KDE. I prefer the OO approach to the desktop.
TWBMDB I like karma and I don't care if you don't.
So decrypting information that a company wants to keep secret is now illegal? If I send information that I've rot13'ed and someone I don't want to read it rot13's it, can I sue them? Does that mean that I can post a zip file to an anonymous ftp site and specify that nobody unzip it and sue them if they do?
Basically, the consortium is trying to sue someone for creating a tool to read information that they own.
When are we going to see a Slashdot time capsule?
It looks more like a lecture to me. Something along the lines of "Now if you'd put your bike in garage it wouldn't have been stolen. By the way, I hid it in the back yard so you'd know how it feels to have your bike stolen. Put your bike away and you won't feel like this again."
Oh hell, that's the best example that came to mind.
BRAVO! You're hired! Please report to $TECH_RAG tomorrow. Welcome aboard.
Dvorak is the Rush Limgaugh of tech rags. He turns out a monthly one-page rant that can't even come close to Pournell (I'd gladly wade through references to "Lucille, my Compaq Presario...") for the little insight Pournell gives compared to Rush^WDvorak's "future of technology" type articles. Blech!
Is anyone familiar enough with the New York penal code to determine why the police would personally go to this man's house for the "unit" (wink wink nudge nudge)?
I just want to know so I can accidentally send Gulianni some flowers and get the cops to go get them back for me.
I just thought of the most obvious thing that could possibly be patented now that they're allowing processes and thoughts to be patented:
The Process of Elimination!
I'll issue a press release:
Process of Elimination patented by Foo Corp.
Blah blah blah.
If I had enough money, I'd do this in a heartbeat.
A method of troubleshooting by eliminating all choices but one by using a process of trial and error (patent pending) to find which choices give the desired effect and which don't.
I told my wife before Stallman suggested the boycott to not buy me books from amazon. It's not a big political statement, but I just don't want to reward them for their practices.
Right! Then it reverts to basically the same app that Creative started with.
It looks like a "Creative Play Center" for Linux as well as a "Creative Launcher", etc. The sound card manufacturers feel this need to develope their own applications to do things like
play a wav.
play a cd.
be a taskbar.
record a wav.
play midi files.
What the hell does Linux need with a Creative Launcher? What this will do is end up with a Liveware for Linux with a bunch of low quality sound related applications that have wierd bugs and assorted problems. I think Creative should customize GLP'ed audio apps with a Creative logo, write a good help file documenting everything, and allow anybody to download it. Beats the hell out of proprietary audio apps that don't work as well as their GPL'ed counterparts.
Isn't it more likely that this guy paid with credit card and a waiter wrote the number down? If I were going to commit credit card fraud I'd just get a job at Red Lobster and start writing.
You mean sticking them in the ground and throwing water on them?
This, more than anything, shows me that John C. cares about the product that he releases. He's statistically comparing the number of 3dfx support emails per capita to the number of nVidia emails. This absolutely doesn't upset me. I'm not keeping what video card I have or what operating system I'm running a state secret. I'm guessing he didn't give the option of saying no every time it wants to send that information because of at least two reasons:
A: It's be fscking annoying.
B: All the paranoid people of the world would say no and their support emails in would affect the numbers.
I think the whole thing is a ploy by Bruce to get Karma points ;> He got four for just apologizing!
and today and yesterday, as well as all other holidays, are paid double time and a half. Can't beat that.
Actually, he's probably trying to get his karma bumped a little. I used to post as soon as a story came out with a little non-contraversial comment that was either just a little insightful or just a little humorous, and get at least a point. Now, I've got karma of 82 or so, don't visit or post as much due to a recent promotion and less time on my hands, and I get karma just for Meta-Moderating as well as the chance to moderate every once in a while. What's his face should learn from my example and slow it down a little. More thought out comments will get you at least two points.
Here are the geekish items om my family's wish list this year:
Me:
A CDRW drive
A DVD drive now that there's decryption software for Linux
My son:
A computer built by yours truly
Portable MP3 player
My wife:
A palm pilot
Gotta love a family that wants tech stuff for Christmas!
iD should offer the Windows binary for download for us that want to purchase the Linux version, and/or play Quake 3 arena on multiple systems, or multi-boot. That way we could vote for open source and still play the game under the evil scourge of operating systems on other machines in the house, or if speed is more important sometimes, etc.
How many different companies could MS be feasibly broken up into? It looks like the DOJ might be cool with 2 (applications/internet, and Operating systems). Who could lead the companies? Wouldn't MS have to split up the execs? Could Gates or Ballmer be involved in both companies?
Actually, a better solution would be to add a vanilla Voodoo2 card to the system so he could have the vastly superior TNT as well as the compatible with everything 3dfx card. If he wanted to play a game in Windows because most games don't support Linux (but they will in about a year) he could play in 32 bit color with a texture size larger than 256x256. Of course, he never said he had a TNT. He might have a TNT2 or even a 128ZX.
With my first run through of Cryptonomicon complete, it left me wondering which parts of the book were real and which came from the overactive imagination of Neal Stephenson. If you haven't read the book yet, I reccomend it. Maybe when I'm done reading it for the fourth time I'll let someone borrow it. Too bad each read takes longer than the preceeding one. The first took four days. The fourth will probably take about a month.
Most of these "legacy free" PCs run off of Intel's crippled 810 or 810e chipset. As far as I know, there's no X driver for the 810. So if you're cool with no Xwindows on these legacy free boxes, that's fine, but I'd first make sure they had either a BX chipset or a non-Intel chipset.
Is it just me or did the world just gain color? I feel like dancing around singing "Ding Dong the witch is dead!" This means good things for Caldera and any company that's suing Microsoft. They just have to say "Judge Jackson says Microsoft is a monopoly" rather than trying to prove it. MS is and will always be considered a monopoly. At least until they've gained considerable market share.
Computer manufacturers offer warranties on their products just like any other company that makes a product. When the part is defective, they issue a recall. Some, like Dell with the Western Digital issue are proactive and call their customers to let them know when the technician will be coming out to replace the drive. Others try to bury it under the rug. Neither really deserves sued. That's why we have places like the Better Business Bureau. You report a company for slow response, write letters to the CEO, call and complain because the product ise not working as designed, and I can't believe you wouldn't recieve service. I'd prefer to work with and buy products from a proactive company, but I sure can't see myself involved in a class action lawsuit against a pretty reputable company unless I wanted to damage them. I'd take care of the issue myself and maybe even take them to small claims court where the issue belongs. At least that way I would get full compensation.
That's all the rambling. If there's anything good in what I just said it's your responsibility to pick it out.