The problem is that most of us, time and time again, keep trying to answer this question. And in the end, we all figure that patents are a hell for any non-major player of non-commercial entity. The problem is that the European Commision and several other entities related to it either don't get asked this same question, or they have a bigger beast breathing down their neck, bigger than a mob of angered free software developers and small entities.
Always be careful, thanks to the language ambigiouty, even the simplest statements can be turned around to form the opposite instead.
Even in saying "Kazaa does not come with spyware bundled", followed by "Kazaa and the bundled software do not collect personal information" still leaves quite a large hole for them to just walk straight through. What if one of the bundled applications reroutes your HTTP traffic through third-party servers? All the application does is re-route your traffic, it doesn't collect any information at all. The information collecting may just as well happen elsewhere.
Again, always remain on the look-out for these things, however minor they may seem.
From "Microsoft's Longhorn Faces Antitrust Scrutiny": One analyst opines that Microsoft is appearing to soften its image to become kinder and gentler. 'They don't want people to hate them anymore. They've learned from their mistakes.'
It's okay, we all suffer from schizophrenia every once in a while.
The last Windows you used must have been Windows 95. With all the Microsoft bashing going on (which I understand and rather enjoy) you should still be honest. A well set-up and firewalled Windows system can be very stable nowadays.
Besides, your joe average won't need his system to stay up 24/7. I'm a definite power user, but I turn my system off when I don't need it for extensive amounts of time. The last time Windows crashed on me? I can't even remember it.
If you're going to troll, at least bring up some constructive statements.
[Ricardo] You did reaaal good, you work for me now. [Tommy] I work for money. [Ricardo] As I said amigo, you work for ME now! [Tommy] I WORK for MO-- [Ricardo] Shut up!
I've said time to time again that a lot of free/open source software suffers from not having an ease to use interface. One can argue that functionality is more important than the presentation/interface layer, but seriously, users are more attracted to pretty pictures.
But it's not just the subject of pretty pictures. Professional software companies may actually spend several subsequent dollar signs into providing a consistent, easy-to-navigate user interface. The trick isn't to show all functionality. The trick is to present the functionality the user needs, in a logical grouping as the users expect it.
Just because something isn't used as much anymore by the majority of the people as it used to be, doesn't necessarily mean it's dead.
A group at college that I'm in was designing a database for some rental place. We purposely included because we were certain that a lot of these places would still actually have tapes. And, after a quick check at a local place called Video Land, I confirmed our thoughts.
Sure, it might be phasing out. But that doesn't mean it's dead.
Yes, I apologize for the double-post. I hadn't read the other comment pertaining to this subject because I had my Post Comment window opened, and was called away, to only finish writing my comment and posting it later, when somebody else beat me to it.
Again, apologies.
Think about it. Most of us geeks know what things look like, and we might or might not be arsed to rea about all the changes. Nonetheless, the casual Windows user would not know a single thing about the packages mentioned in the 'updated' lists.
As they say, a screenshot says a thousand words...
I'm not sure if one day could cover the required procedures of including and testing. Firefox 1 PR has been out for a bit now, and I'm assuming they've tested this in combination with other software.
Nonetheless, I still wonder why they didn't wait a few more days -- especially with the launch compaign [full-page new york times ad] drawing attention to the final release.
It probably depends. If you buy this in good faith, fully trusting the buyer, then you should have nothing to worry about. On the other hand, if you're already assuming or know that the product's dodgy, you can probably get in trouble for that.
Guess you won't have to bother buying one anymore now. Oops!
Slashdot Mirror
The problem is that most of us, time and time again, keep trying to answer this question. And in the end, we all figure that patents are a hell for any non-major player of non-commercial entity. The problem is that the European Commision and several other entities related to it either don't get asked this same question, or they have a bigger beast breathing down their neck, bigger than a mob of angered free software developers and small entities.
Always be careful, thanks to the language ambigiouty, even the simplest statements can be turned around to form the opposite instead.
Even in saying "Kazaa does not come with spyware bundled", followed by "Kazaa and the bundled software do not collect personal information" still leaves quite a large hole for them to just walk straight through. What if one of the bundled applications reroutes your HTTP traffic through third-party servers? All the application does is re-route your traffic, it doesn't collect any information at all. The information collecting may just as well happen elsewhere.
Again, always remain on the look-out for these things, however minor they may seem.
From "Microsoft's Longhorn Faces Antitrust Scrutiny":
One analyst opines that Microsoft is appearing to soften its image to become kinder and gentler. 'They don't want people to hate them anymore. They've learned from their mistakes.'
It's okay, we all suffer from schizophrenia every once in a while.
The last Windows you used must have been Windows 95. With all the Microsoft bashing going on (which I understand and rather enjoy) you should still be honest. A well set-up and firewalled Windows system can be very stable nowadays. Besides, your joe average won't need his system to stay up 24/7. I'm a definite power user, but I turn my system off when I don't need it for extensive amounts of time. The last time Windows crashed on me? I can't even remember it. If you're going to troll, at least bring up some constructive statements.
I'll take the beer, please. ... oh, wait. you mean they weren't offering? Damn.
That reminds me of this Vice City cutscene...
[Ricardo] You did reaaal good, you work for me now.
[Tommy] I work for money.
[Ricardo] As I said amigo, you work for ME now!
[Tommy] I WORK for MO--
[Ricardo] Shut up!
I've said time to time again that a lot of free/open source software suffers from not having an ease to use interface. One can argue that functionality is more important than the presentation/interface layer, but seriously, users are more attracted to pretty pictures.
But it's not just the subject of pretty pictures. Professional software companies may actually spend several subsequent dollar signs into providing a consistent, easy-to-navigate user interface. The trick isn't to show all functionality. The trick is to present the functionality the user needs, in a logical grouping as the users expect it.
Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.
;)
Yes, very user-friendly.
"Service Unavailable"
Wait, you still want me to reply to "How Much Harm Can One Website Do"?
Just as my bot spit out the link to this article via the Slashdot RSS feed, I got the following message:
503 Service Unavailable
The service is not available. Please try again later.
We all know it'd look somewhat similar to Doom 3 itself.
Just because something isn't used as much anymore by the majority of the people as it used to be, doesn't necessarily mean it's dead. A group at college that I'm in was designing a database for some rental place. We purposely included because we were certain that a lot of these places would still actually have tapes. And, after a quick check at a local place called Video Land, I confirmed our thoughts. Sure, it might be phasing out. But that doesn't mean it's dead.
Chicken? Egg? Err, wait, what?
>> strong, virile company Are you sure you don't mean viral?
Is this the same Microsoft from the one who also said 640k ought to be enough? ;)
Yes, I apologize for the double-post. I hadn't read the other comment pertaining to this subject because I had my Post Comment window opened, and was called away, to only finish writing my comment and posting it later, when somebody else beat me to it. Again, apologies.
Think about it. Most of us geeks know what things look like, and we might or might not be arsed to rea about all the changes. Nonetheless, the casual Windows user would not know a single thing about the packages mentioned in the 'updated' lists. As they say, a screenshot says a thousand words...
I'm not sure if one day could cover the required procedures of including and testing. Firefox 1 PR has been out for a bit now, and I'm assuming they've tested this in combination with other software. Nonetheless, I still wonder why they didn't wait a few more days -- especially with the launch compaign [full-page new york times ad] drawing attention to the final release.
Though, mentioning Firefox... it makes me wonder. Why didn't they wait an extra few days to include the final 1.0 release of Firefox?
It probably depends. If you buy this in good faith, fully trusting the buyer, then you should have nothing to worry about. On the other hand, if you're already assuming or know that the product's dodgy, you can probably get in trouble for that. Guess you won't have to bother buying one anymore now. Oops!