Even if M$ did make something like this and killed off all competition, we would go back to step one where M$ doesn't bother making a new version because they have the whole market. Then, again, an Open Source project will start to make a better browser.
"The Motion Picture Association of America estimates that it loses $3.5 billion in potential worldwide revenue because of movie piracy."
I love the potential part. I think that this is ridiculous. Just because they could make that money does it mean they will? I think no. Personally I don't buy DVDs and won't until they go down to a reasonable price (around $5). I think the same mentality is around for a lot of people. And the people who are downloading movies would probably not be buying them in the first place.
I'm just curious, what is it with slashdotters (of course not all) and pot? Why is pot so _good_? IMHO I like having control of myself and thus I don't drink excessively nor do I do any drugs. But what are your arguments for pot being so good?
IMHO I think things like this are really sad. If your going to be in government your task is to be thinking of your people (be that citizens or businesses). And it is expected that when someone offers bribes (which this might not have been) that you will not accept it and call the authorities. But the sad truth is that people are people.
Exactly! My question is why are people not writing standard complaint code in the first place? When something is standard complaint it's portable and can be compiled with whatever compiler you wish (Intel, Borland, etc), given that that compiler follows standards too.
The complementary, independent, selfless acts of thousands of individuals can address system problems -- there are thousands of people making the system stronger.
Interestingly enough Microsoft sponsors OASIS... could this mean that Office will incorperate these standards as well? Or is it just for PR so they can say, "we also sponsor them but don't really support their format."
In order to make it easier on the users (ie no passwords and such when installing new software) why not do the following:
Instead of running the user as root and allowing them to install any god forsaken program there is why not give them a regular account. Then when the user wants to install something they click on it and the Linspire package managing software connects to a Linspire database where the program is checked against a white list. If the program isn't on the white list tell the user that the program can't be installed because it is most likely a virus or spyware. Then give the user a help number to call if they still really want to install it and let people help them out.
Now, if the program is OK to install Linspire queries it's user database for your products root password and then fills it in and viola, the program installs.
A shortcoming is that you might not be connected to the Internet, but, IMO, it's pretty safe to assume that someone buying a new computer is going to have Internet access as well. Just a thought.
Hmm I guess I would kinda lose most of my money there:P.
According to this wikipedia article only 500 basketball sized meteors hit the earth every year. The question is, how many reach 20 km above the ground before they disintegrate?
offtopic: anyone know how to stop windows from swapping when there is 500mb+ of free ram? it's really annoying, and just putting the swap to 0 on all drives doesn't really solve the problem either(and some soft freak off from it, this is on XP). I hate having 1.5gb of ram and only seeing half of it used regularly while having windows swap horrendously.
I think the clear answer to your question is... ... ... ... ...
Linux!:P
The point is there are no laws against what you named. Felon's broke the law and thus are punished.
To me it seems kinda funny that they get shoved in jail where they live better than they did outside of the jail. I mean, your there to be punished, not to think, "oh cool, in jail I had Internet access and all this cool other stuff. I'm going to go commit another crime so that I can come back and continue hosting my website."
While not as bad as monopoly, it's still a problem, at least if you are a consumer. Voting with your wallet in an oligopoly is not very effective, as the choices are all practically the same. Monopolies and oligopolies are really capitalism gone wrong.
Not sure if I really agree with you on the oligopolies part (totally agree about monopolies though). Oligopolies are actually pretty good for the economy because they really promote innovation. While in a perfect competition situation (an example being wheat farmers) there is no point of innovating. If the farmer wants to make more money, he/she just increases his/her's output because it will have no affect on the price.
Oligopolies are all around us. Examples range from IBM's DB2 and Oracle to Coke Cola and Pepsi to McDonalds and Wendy's and the other large fast food places. And in these oligopolies we have fierce competition which leads to innovation. Imagine however if you had 1000 different database vendors which provided essentially the same product. What would be promoting innovation? You would know that there very little that you can do to stand out (and you won't really have money for R & D).
So in summary I think oligopolies are not really situations when capitalism went wrong.
Disclaimer: All this info is coming from a 1st year eco course:P
I think so, but since there is very few Hot-Spots (at least here in Toronto) I can't see this being very practicle. Even if large cities adopt Wifi, when you leave the city your "cell phone" won't work anymore.
...but I believe that in Minority Report they were using OLEDs ie no projector. Wake me up when they have OLEDs in mass production, that is a lot more interesting.
Allchin said that Longhorn also goes further than Tiger when it comes to what one can do with search results, saying it offers new ways to organize and view the information. While the look of the OS hasn't been finalized, the translucent windows and other graphics tricks are expected to find their way into the finished software.
Hmm translucent windows... also very ground breaking (XOrg has had this since 6.8)...
...Allchin stressed that Microsoft has broken new ground in Longhorn. For example, document icons are no longer a hint of the type of file, but rather a small picture of the file itself. The icon for a Word document, for example, is a tiny iteration of the first page of the file. Folders, too, show glimpses of what's inside. Such images can be rather small, but they offer a visual cue that aids in the searching process, Allchin said.
New ground?! This feature has been around in KDE* (and in Gnome* can't remember though) for at least the past year that I've been using it. I give them a little credit for the folders part but give me a break! It really seems like M$ has been doing a lot of ground breaking work by looking and implementing what the competition has had for a long time now and then claiming that they are being innovative.
Slashdot Mirror
Wait so this isn't made out of real nano-particles?
Lather, rinse and repeat.
I love the potential part. I think that this is ridiculous. Just because they could make that money does it mean they will? I think no. Personally I don't buy DVDs and won't until they go down to a reasonable price (around $5). I think the same mentality is around for a lot of people. And the people who are downloading movies would probably not be buying them in the first place.
They're American ;)
I'm just curious, what is it with slashdotters (of course not all) and pot? Why is pot so _good_? IMHO I like having control of myself and thus I don't drink excessively nor do I do any drugs. But what are your arguments for pot being so good?
IMHO I think things like this are really sad. If your going to be in government your task is to be thinking of your people (be that citizens or businesses). And it is expected that when someone offers bribes (which this might not have been) that you will not accept it and call the authorities. But the sad truth is that people are people.
Exactly! My question is why are people not writing standard complaint code in the first place? When something is standard complaint it's portable and can be compiled with whatever compiler you wish (Intel, Borland, etc), given that that compiler follows standards too.
Aww I feel so warm and fuzzy!
If no one shares what will there be to download?
Interestingly enough Microsoft sponsors OASIS... could this mean that Office will incorperate these standards as well? Or is it just for PR so they can say, "we also sponsor them but don't really support their format."
In order to make it easier on the users (ie no passwords and such when installing new software) why not do the following:
Instead of running the user as root and allowing them to install any god forsaken program there is why not give them a regular account. Then when the user wants to install something they click on it and the Linspire package managing software connects to a Linspire database where the program is checked against a white list. If the program isn't on the white list tell the user that the program can't be installed because it is most likely a virus or spyware. Then give the user a help number to call if they still really want to install it and let people help them out.
Now, if the program is OK to install Linspire queries it's user database for your products root password and then fills it in and viola, the program installs.
A shortcoming is that you might not be connected to the Internet, but, IMO, it's pretty safe to assume that someone buying a new computer is going to have Internet access as well. Just a thought.
Yes that's what all slashdotters would like to believe ;)
for the lazy ;)
According to this wikipedia article only 500 basketball sized meteors hit the earth every year. The question is, how many reach 20 km above the ground before they disintegrate?
I'm putting my money on meteors.
I think the clear answer to your question is ...
...
...
...
... :P
Linux!
To me it seems kinda funny that they get shoved in jail where they live better than they did outside of the jail. I mean, your there to be punished, not to think, "oh cool, in jail I had Internet access and all this cool other stuff. I'm going to go commit another crime so that I can come back and continue hosting my website."
Not sure if I really agree with you on the oligopolies part (totally agree about monopolies though). Oligopolies are actually pretty good for the economy because they really promote innovation. While in a perfect competition situation (an example being wheat farmers) there is no point of innovating. If the farmer wants to make more money, he/she just increases his/her's output because it will have no affect on the price.
Oligopolies are all around us. Examples range from IBM's DB2 and Oracle to Coke Cola and Pepsi to McDonalds and Wendy's and the other large fast food places. And in these oligopolies we have fierce competition which leads to innovation. Imagine however if you had 1000 different database vendors which provided essentially the same product. What would be promoting innovation? You would know that there very little that you can do to stand out (and you won't really have money for R & D).
So in summary I think oligopolies are not really situations when capitalism went wrong.
:P
Disclaimer: All this info is coming from a 1st year eco course
I think he was being sarcastic...
So maybe in the not so distant future...
Well I guess this is from _the_ department :P
...but I believe that in Minority Report they were using OLEDs ie no projector. Wake me up when they have OLEDs in mass production, that is a lot more interesting.
Hmm translucent windows... also very ground breaking (XOrg has had this since 6.8)...
Man I should learn how to type faster...
New ground?! This feature has been around in KDE* (and in Gnome* can't remember though) for at least the past year that I've been using it. I give them a little credit for the folders part but give me a break! It really seems like M$ has been doing a lot of ground breaking work by looking and implementing what the competition has had for a long time now and then claiming that they are being innovative.
* on SuSE 9.1 and 9.2