"If you were plowing a field, which would you rather use? Two strong oxen or 1024 chickens?"
Depends. How much do the Oxen cost and how much do the chickens cost? Chicken reliability is less important than oxen reliability since I probably won't miss a couple of chickens -- but I sure am going to notice having to move the carcass of a dead ox off my field and then help in pulling the plow with the other ox. Chicken dung must be good fertilizer too.
Also, it'll probably be easier to get all the chickens pointed in the right direction with my dog. That ox looks like he could eat poor little Sparky. Come to think of it, your ox looks like he wants to make a carpet out of me. Those chickens are looking better all the time and tasty too!:-):-)
Here is a byte article that has a nice discussion on some of the differences between 2.2.x and 2.3.x: http://www.byte.com/documents/s=8880/byt10 62182129 207/0901_laird.html
Fair enough. You'll appreciate though, I'm sure, that it is extremely dubious that a user land process can be responsible for taking down a real OS. You should consider the possiblity you have defective drivers or perhaps even problematic hardware.
Simply put, I highly doubt Firefox is responsible for the problem you describe.
"It crashes and takes down Windows with it (this is really odd, but it does, I can't explain it, no decent OS should be taken down by a rogue application)."
Stop running Windows95/98/ME then and switch to a real OS.
Ordinary users barely know how to install/configure software on Windows too. I'm constantly helping people with simple Windows things like adding a printer etc...
Ordinary people use pre-configured Windows systems put-toghether by manufactueres like Dell. They do not install things themselves. Try asking an ordinary person how to configure the XP firewall. Most of them won't even know Windows XP has one. Did you know all the major Linux distros configure a firewall by default now?
Package management is just as hard in Windows. What the hell is a user supposed to do when an Install shield un-install pops up a dialog saying "do you want to keep DLL so-and-so on your system or not?". It's because installing software is so hard for ordinary users that there is such a big battle over Microsoft's habit of bundling their own stuff and excluding stuff from competitors.
So spare me that 'installing software in windows is so much easier' crap. I've seen more Windows systems hosed through installing/un-installing software then there are Slashdot Windows Trolls.
Interesting.. I admit I had assumed the DRM was on both as I surmised its purpose was to help prevent copyright infringement.
It seems, from what you are saying, that Apple's Fairplay is only about vendor lock-in then. An interesting choice of name in that case, don't you think?
I think I'll stick with buying CDs for the time being then. In the worst case I'll just have to re-rip them.
Since I've only used it to rip my own CDs so far, I guess I haven't aggreed to those terms yet.
Should it be illegal to extract Fairplay AACs generated from my own CDs? I might want to do that one day if I decide something else meets my fancy more than itunes does.
Or, to make another analogy, can't you just imagine the uproar that would be generated if Microsoft tried to make converting Word documents to Wordperfect illegal?
Accordingly, if I decide I no longer like itunes, since I have paid for the right to listen to it (as you say) then I am entitled to extract the data into another format which will let me listen to the music with someone else's software.
Is Apple legally entitled to restrict what device and software you can use to listen to music? Last I checked, even the DMCA doesn't permit a manufacturer to restrict which device/software you use for your personal enjoyment of copyrighted material.
Anyways, itunes is fun -- I enjoy using it. I hope Apple doesn't let this crack upset them since as long as they keep their service interesting and competitive, people won't be inclined to want to try something else. The value of a product is what should drive consumer choices afterall; not artificial technical barriers.
You have a point. Perhaps the problem with the ticket analogy is that you can get a ticket in 20 minutes. Getting to the point of fining Microsoft, however, has taken a long time. Waiting until Microsoft exhausts all its appeal options will probably also take a long time.
I remember when IE 3.0 was released. It came bundled with critical fixes to the common controls DLL that couldn't be downloaded seperately. This, even though this library is considered by all to be core to win32 GUI programs. A ton of software started specifying shorlty afterwards that you needed IE for their product to work properly.
They've followed the IE approach with Media player and MS Messenger both of which are now 'core parts of the OS' they say.
It's clear to me somebody has to force Microsoft to stop creating these artificial dependencies which serve only to further their dominance in choice markets.
If you asked the question "Is it worth it to Microsoft to lose 500MIL in exchange for a monopoly in the growing market of online music purchasing?" Consider in your answer how much money Microsoft has been willing to lose in its quest to take over the game console business.
I think the objection that a 'traffic ticket' was insufficient has some validity. This said, in my opinion what will matter most is the remedial actions the EU orders. If the remedies have bite then the amount of the fine will be less important. It's my hope Microsoft is not allowed to avoid those by appeal delay-tactics.
It doesn't at all. This is only about AMERICAN making companies taking an easy (and in the long term stupid) way to cost savings.
Outsourcing has been going for number of years. Only before, everyone was told you just needed to improve your skills-- make yourself better etc... most people eventually accepted that. Except now we're getting told to digest seeing engineers who spent 30,000$ on their educations lose their 50,000$ jobs to some dude over seas who got his education for a few hundred dollars and who works for 8000$ a year-- and that we just should suck it up and find something else to do. Only none of the twits who proliferate this garbage can ever say what exactly that something else is supposed to be.
These American companies are taking advantage of the fact that in these other countries people can live well on salaries that are 80% lower than typical American ones. People in the US can't compete. The cost of health benefits, un-employment insurance, food, shelter, transportation and clothes is too damn high.
The only way to lower the U.S. standard of living to their level would be to move huge portions of the people in the U.S. to live in mud huts and ditch Medicare, paid holidays, and unemployment insurance along with all of the expensive government programs that our meager taxes could no longer afford to pay for. And that, my friend, is ultimately where all these cost savings outsourcing supposedly generate come from-- from society.
If an American job goes to a country like Germany. Fine, thats fair competition, because I know the German pays a ton of taxes and lives in a society with equal or greater than rights than in the U.S. -- this is not the case in this argument.
I won't bother adding to the other post which says it all. I will, however, point out the deep irony in your talking about Microsoft profits in a story thread about Microsoft trying to get people to translate their stuff for free.
I'm using KDE 3.2.1 on Fedora Core 1; but I've been using layouts since as long as I can remember.
Inside the Control Center go to: Regional & Accessibility And select: Keyboard Layout Click the checkbox to enable additional layouts then: Select the language you want. Choose French Canadian.
You'll then get a little keyboard switching applet that allows you to switch between keyboards layouts on the fly. In KDE 3.2 they've also added customizable key combinations to do it with. I stayed with the default alt-ctrl-k
KDE is extremely flexible and easy-to-use in allowing you to remap your keyboard.
A vague unsupported statement by an AC moderated to +4.....
But hey, MS astroturfers like to shoot fast and make a lot of noise, so I guess I'm starting to get used to it. Anyways, when was the last time you used KDE?
FYI: KDE now supports
49 languagesand the list is actively growing. On an other note, I seem to recall a story just recently about Microsoft refusing to update Microsoft Office for Hebrew on the Mac...
"and I doubt many mechanics really care enough about Linux to base their purchasing decisions on anything besides cost"
No doubt you are right on that point. What made even pay attention to this thread was the high level of moderation given to a post that basically called all Linux users who vote with their dollars 'zealots'.
A lot of anti-Linux threads I read here generally like simplistic characterizations such as that trollish allusion to the actual number of people interested in Linux.
Breathtaking? More like mind numbingly stupid. Cars that drive like the steering wheel actually was a joystick. Cops who magically stop chasing you after you drive over a special token. Idiot AI that has gang members shooting at you no matter what car you are in because somehow they always know its you. Everything in this game has the memory of a gnat fly and reacts the same way every time to what you do.
Bone numbingly awful gameplay patched up with 'pretty' graphics and sold by catering to the lowest instincts of people. Commander Keen was more inventive by a landslide.
More expensive than upgrading to the "dirt cheap counter-offer Ballmer made when he flew over there to try to swing them back over to MS" no doubt.
But this is the Ballmer Hot Air Machine (TM)(C) in full swing. It's not really news except that you feel the need to pinch your nose whenever Ballmer turns on it on
This part here was a real kicker for me
on
Darl & SCO Overview
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
McBride says SCO has shown plenty. "They're disingenuous on that or they would be ripping out the million lines of code we've already pointed to," he said, adding that the violations are too far-reaching to simply rip out anyway. One million lines amounts to roughly 20 percent of the entire Linux kernel. McBride says SCO revealed the offending code last August at its Las Vegas SCOForum. "Truly, and then they just ignored it," he said.
If this isn't the most baldfaced lying I've ever seen in my life I don't know what is. I feel like a passerby overhearing a wacko prothelysizing absurdities whose obvious falseness is apparent to even the children laughing at him; then the loon complains that nobody takes him seriously.
It's a nice keyboard, but I personally found the 2-key-combo function keys and missing number pad difficult to live with after trying to use it for a month.
It has great tactile feedback and does indeed take less room.. it's now used for my server shelf where space is an issue. Using xmodmap in Linux and the registry in Windows to swap CAPSLOCK and CTRL also helped to switch me back.
Slashdot Mirror
hehehe... 1024 chicks pulling my plow... ooo...
I think this is degenerating fast... better stop now.
"If you were plowing a field, which would you rather use? Two strong oxen or 1024 chickens?"
:-) :-)
Depends. How much do the Oxen cost and how much do the chickens cost? Chicken reliability is less important than oxen reliability since I probably won't miss a couple of chickens -- but I sure am going to notice having to move the carcass of a dead ox off my field and then help in pulling the plow with the other ox. Chicken dung must be good fertilizer too.
Also, it'll probably be easier to get all the chickens pointed in the right direction with my dog. That ox looks like he could eat poor little Sparky. Come to think of it, your ox looks like he wants to make a carpet out of me. Those chickens are looking better all the time and tasty too!
Here is a byte article that has a nice discussion on some of the differences between 2.2.x and 2.3.x:0 62182129 207/0901_laird.html
http://www.byte.com/documents/s=8880/byt1
Fair enough. You'll appreciate though, I'm sure, that it is extremely dubious that a user land process can be responsible for taking down a real OS. You should consider the possiblity you have defective drivers or perhaps even problematic hardware.
Simply put, I highly doubt Firefox is responsible for the problem you describe.
"It crashes and takes down Windows with it (this is really odd, but it does, I can't explain it, no decent OS should be taken down by a rogue application)."
Stop running Windows95/98/ME then and switch to a real OS.
Ordinary users barely know how to install/configure software on Windows too. I'm constantly helping people with simple Windows things like adding a printer etc...
Ordinary people use pre-configured Windows systems put-toghether by manufactueres like Dell. They do not install things themselves. Try asking an ordinary person how to configure the XP firewall. Most of them won't even know Windows XP has one. Did you know all the major Linux distros configure a firewall by default now?
Package management is just as hard in Windows. What the hell is a user supposed to do when an Install shield un-install pops up a dialog saying "do you want to keep DLL so-and-so on your system or not?". It's because installing software is so hard for ordinary users that there is such a big battle over Microsoft's habit of bundling their own stuff and excluding stuff from competitors.
So spare me that 'installing software in windows is so much easier' crap. I've seen more Windows systems hosed through installing/un-installing software then there are Slashdot Windows Trolls.
Interesting.. I admit I had assumed the DRM was on both as I surmised its purpose was to help prevent copyright infringement.
It seems, from what you are saying, that Apple's Fairplay is only about vendor lock-in then. An interesting choice of name in that case, don't you think?
I think I'll stick with buying CDs for the time being then. In the worst case I'll just have to re-rip them.
Since I've only used it to rip my own CDs so far, I guess I haven't aggreed to those terms yet.
Should it be illegal to extract Fairplay AACs generated from my own CDs? I might want to do that one day if I decide something else meets my fancy more than itunes does.
Or, to make another analogy, can't you just imagine the uproar that would be generated if Microsoft tried to make converting Word documents to Wordperfect illegal?
"you just payed for the ability to listen to it."
Accordingly, if I decide I no longer like itunes, since I have paid for the right to listen to it (as you say) then I am entitled to extract the data into another format which will let me listen to the music with someone else's software.
Is Apple legally entitled to restrict what device and software you can use to listen to music? Last I checked, even the DMCA doesn't permit a manufacturer to restrict which device/software you use for your personal enjoyment of copyrighted material.
Anyways, itunes is fun -- I enjoy using it. I hope Apple doesn't let this crack upset them since as long as they keep their service interesting and competitive, people won't be inclined to want to try something else. The value of a product is what should drive consumer choices afterall; not artificial technical barriers.
You have a point. Perhaps the problem with the ticket analogy is that you can get a ticket in 20 minutes. Getting to the point of fining Microsoft, however, has taken a long time. Waiting until Microsoft exhausts all its appeal options will probably also take a long time.
I remember when IE 3.0 was released. It came bundled with critical fixes to the common controls DLL that couldn't be downloaded seperately. This, even though this library is considered by all to be core to win32 GUI programs. A ton of software started specifying shorlty afterwards that you needed IE for their product to work properly.
They've followed the IE approach with Media player and MS Messenger both of which are now 'core parts of the OS' they say.
It's clear to me somebody has to force Microsoft to stop creating these artificial dependencies which serve only to further their dominance in choice markets.
Yes and no.
If you asked the question "Is it worth it to Microsoft to lose 500MIL in exchange for a monopoly in the growing market of online music purchasing?" Consider in your answer how much money Microsoft has been willing to lose in its quest to take over the game console business.
I think the objection that a 'traffic ticket' was insufficient has some validity. This said, in my opinion what will matter most is the remedial actions the EU orders. If the remedies have bite then the amount of the fine will be less important. It's my hope Microsoft is not allowed to avoid those by appeal delay-tactics.
It doesn't at all. This is only about AMERICAN making companies taking an easy (and in the long term stupid) way to cost savings.
Outsourcing has been going for number of years. Only before, everyone was told you just needed to improve your skills-- make yourself better etc... most people eventually accepted that. Except now we're getting told to digest seeing engineers who spent 30,000$ on their educations lose their 50,000$ jobs to some dude over seas who got his education for a few hundred dollars and who works for 8000$ a year-- and that we just should suck it up and find something else to do. Only none of the twits who proliferate this garbage can ever say what exactly that something else is supposed to be.
These American companies are taking advantage of the fact that in these other countries people can live well on salaries that are 80% lower than typical American ones. People in the US can't compete. The cost of health benefits, un-employment insurance, food, shelter, transportation and clothes is too damn high.
The only way to lower the U.S. standard of living to their level would be to move huge portions of the people in the U.S. to live in mud huts and ditch Medicare, paid holidays, and unemployment insurance along with all of the expensive government programs that our meager taxes could no longer afford to pay for. And that, my friend, is ultimately where all these cost savings outsourcing supposedly generate come from-- from society.
If an American job goes to a country like Germany. Fine, thats fair competition, because I know the German pays a ton of taxes and lives in a society with equal or greater than rights than in the U.S. -- this is not the case in this argument.
Damn when you need mod points and you don't have them.
I won't bother adding to the other post which says it all. I will, however, point out the deep irony in your talking about Microsoft profits in a story thread about Microsoft trying to get people to translate their stuff for free.
I'm using KDE 3.2.1 on Fedora Core 1; but I've been using layouts since as long as I can remember.
Inside the Control Center go to:
Regional & Accessibility
And select:
Keyboard Layout
Click the checkbox to enable additional layouts then:
Select the language you want. Choose French Canadian.
You'll then get a little keyboard switching applet that allows you to switch between keyboards layouts on the fly. In KDE 3.2 they've also added customizable key combinations to do it with. I stayed with the default alt-ctrl-k
KDE is extremely flexible and easy-to-use in allowing you to remap your keyboard.
A vague unsupported statement by an AC moderated to +4 .....
But hey, MS astroturfers like to shoot fast and make a lot of noise, so I guess I'm starting to get used to it. Anyways, when was the last time you used KDE?
FYI: KDE now supports 49 languagesand the list is actively growing. On an other note, I seem to recall a story just recently about Microsoft refusing to update Microsoft Office for Hebrew on the Mac...
"and I doubt many mechanics really care enough about Linux to base their purchasing decisions on anything besides cost"
No doubt you are right on that point. What made even pay attention to this thread was the high level of moderation given to a post that basically called all Linux users who vote with their dollars 'zealots'.
A lot of anti-Linux threads I read here generally like simplistic characterizations such as that trollish allusion to the actual number of people interested in Linux.
"You'd need a thousand times the current number of Linux zealots to make even the most miniscule impact on a large company like AutoZone's business."
This is insightful? Since you claim to know it, why don't you tell everyone here on Slashdot exactly how many 'linux zealots' there are.
Breathtaking? More like mind numbingly stupid. Cars that drive like the steering wheel actually was a joystick. Cops who magically stop chasing you after you drive over a special token. Idiot AI that has gang members shooting at you no matter what car you are in because somehow they always know its you. Everything in this game has the memory of a gnat fly and reacts the same way every time to what you do.
Bone numbingly awful gameplay patched up with 'pretty' graphics and sold by catering to the lowest instincts of people. Commander Keen was more inventive by a landslide.
No thanks, I'll spend my money on something else.
More expensive than upgrading to the "dirt cheap counter-offer Ballmer made when he flew over there to try to swing them back over to MS" no doubt.
But this is the Ballmer Hot Air Machine (TM)(C) in full swing. It's not really news except that you feel the need to pinch your nose whenever Ballmer turns on it on
The only job you listed that actually has to be done here is that of lawyers. Guess what? There are already too many of them.
Disney has become a disposable dud.
McBride says SCO has shown plenty. "They're disingenuous on that or they would be ripping out the million lines of code we've already pointed to," he said, adding that the violations are too far-reaching to simply rip out anyway. One million lines amounts to roughly 20 percent of the entire Linux kernel. McBride says SCO revealed the offending code last August at its Las Vegas SCOForum. "Truly, and then they just ignored it," he said.
If this isn't the most baldfaced lying I've ever seen in my life I don't know what is. I feel like a passerby overhearing a wacko prothelysizing absurdities whose obvious falseness is apparent to even the children laughing at him; then the loon complains that nobody takes him seriously.
It's a nice keyboard, but I personally found the 2-key-combo function keys and missing number pad difficult to live with after trying to use it for a month.
It has great tactile feedback and does indeed take less room.. it's now used for my server shelf where space is an issue. Using xmodmap in Linux and the registry in Windows to swap CAPSLOCK and CTRL also helped to switch me back.
Job Responsabilities:
* Must be a dimwit who won't see the big heavy truck through the headlights until it's too late.