Combining "notification" with "without warning" seems to be a logical error. It is written sensationally. It is written as though Microsoft sneaked this on people, even though we already knew that the machine would begin shutting down every two hours before the RC actually expires. The author either didn't know that or simply left it out of the summary, making it look like Microsoft is throwing this extra wrench in several months early in an effort to get people to "pay up." Even the choice of words (e.g., "pay up") make it sound slanted.
Bias and opinion do not only come out when people say "I think" or "I believe" or "I HATE M$!!!!!!11"
I know you're joking, but sometimes it bugs me, so I choose you to bounce a rant off of.:) Windows ME is 10 years old. Let's compare Windows 7 to RHEL 2.1 next and see how they compare.
No it's not. He didn't name the product and he even posted AC. You can't get any more "This is not an advertisement"... unless he's REALLY good at it, and is drumming up curiosity.
Ok, so the EU is a single economic entity. And their economic prowess is bigger than the US's. And I'm all for improving "my" (hehe) economy. I don't think spending more is going to do it and I don't think the current administration has any plan whatsoever along those lines. It's interesting; first they spent almost $1 trillion. Then they suddenly decide they need to fix the deficit. Seems a bit wishy-washy to me.
Of course, any time someone talks about cutting deficits and not spending what you don't have, someone else chimes in that debt isn't bad, we need to have debt and credit to function, etc... it tends to be a very circular argument. But I'm fairly certain that budget deficits are not good... and we seem to be in a very bad habit of getting massive budget deficits and not caring. And frankly, I'm ashamed that most Americans don't seem to care, either. It's not surprising though; they don't seem to even know what a budget IS:)
It certainly needs some fixing. I don't know if what the current majority in Congress has in mind is "fixing" though. They have something significantly different in mind as far as an end-goal, it would seem (single-payer system). No, the current bill that is apparently stagnated is not a single-payer system, but many of the pushers for "health care reform" at the moment are in favor of a single-payer system.
China and India have poverty on the run? Define "run."
Putting out fires in Mesopotamia? Hmmm. I hate to break it to you, but Iran doesn't just hate the U.S.
Figuring out HOW to treat people when they're sick? We've got that down. Where to world leaders go to get the best treatment these days? Now, if you're talking about figuring out how to treat EVERYONE when they're sick, then yes. We are trying to figure that out. And doing a very bad job of it, too.
Stop consuming a quarter of the world's resources? Hmmm... [citation needed]. I'd also like to know how much we produce with those resources in comparison to other countries.
when the US is still recovering from the diplomatic and geo-political catastrophe what was the Bush years
Yes, what we need is someone who will do what's best for other countries like Obama has promised. Someone who is willing to work with the UN, seeing how they are looking out for the best interests of us. Someone with a real vision and plan to... to do something. We're not sure what yet.
Sarcasm aside, Obama vs. Bush is an interesting one. Bush did not have any of the stage presence that Obama did. And yet it seems that Obama, so far, is mostly stage presence and little else. He does not appear to know how to lead anything but a campaign. And the media eats it up, like all the stories about Mrs. Obama and her garden and all that. And I won't even start with Obama's cabinet and officers and whatnot... Gibbs, and Axelrod, and even Vice President Biden.
Yes, I think we definitely need a lot of "change" at the moment. More spending and more deficit is probably not the best change right now. Yes, I know, Obama is "cutting" spending at the moment. Barely, it would seem... a few million, possibly a billion, here and there... while spending billions on other plans. (Example being the CBO just now telling us that oops, that stimulus package price tag was off by about $75 billion... very few media outlets appear to be covering it though, but here's the Washington Times). And cutting spending isn't and hasn't exactly been the rallying cry of the Democratic party. Unfortunately, the same goes for Republicans... at least, not actually cutting. But it seems they spend a lot less in general, and it seems a lot of conservatives are fed up with both parties. Who knows.
I was referring to downloading specifically as well as protecting the right that I have, I would hope, to restrict access to what I have created.
The arguments for allowing free access can certainly be made. I'm a composer, not a recording artist, and I do offer at least some free PDFs. I also tend to sell cheaply, and I provide the entire PDF, not some fancy "you get this many prints" thing. And all I ask is that you buy the sheet music for yourself or for your group. (In other words, please don't print off copies for all your friends and all the other brass groups, it's only $5 and I let you copy it for everyone in your group or even in your choir, etc). I think that's fair, so that's how I did it.
I agree that the greatest opposers are the large labels and whatnot, and that many "indie" artists seem to somewhat be ok with it. What my big thing is, I think it should be up to the artist. Sure, he may be hurting himself, but I think it should be up to the artist to allow downloads of his music. And if he doesn't want to allow it, that's his decision. His business decision. I think he should have that decision protected. Same goes for software, for that matter. If I want to sell my closed-source software, I think I should be protected in that. I think keygen programs (in the case of Jeff Vogel's shareware) shouldn't be legal as it circumvents the very minor attempt to... well, make money. Heh.
Unfortunately, those that have no problem doing the keygens drive the price up for the honest people that actually want to support the shareware programmer.
Laws should serve to protect people from other people. Not for imposing random restrictions on people's liberties.
Fair enough. Not allowing free distribution of my creations (music, video, whatever) if I choose not to distribute it freely seems like it protects *my* rights. If you can't afford to buy my music/video/whatever, I don't know that that negates the law. Yes, it restricts you... but I'm not sure that's a Bad Thing.
Unless, of course, "I can't afford it" isn't an actual can't-afford but don't-wish-to-afford.
but you haven't helped anyone doing so.
True. I may not have helped anyone by following the speed limit or not doing marijuana, either.
Making your own laws, essentially, based on what you see helping/hurting or not-helping/not-hurting may not be the best way to go about it... and deciding not to follow a law simply because you don't feel you hurt anyone by not following it is an interesting take, as well.
No, money doesn't determine the value; that's obvious. I can pay money for something valuable, and I can get something valuable for free.
What I'm arguing is that doing something illegal because you want it but can't pay for it is... a lame excuse. If you want to really go through the effort and convince me that pirating music is ethically ok even if illegal, then go for it; but excusing your piracy because you couldn't afford it is... well, lame.:)
He loves music, but can't afford to buy everything that he wants
I have never understood why this this makes sense to people as an excuse... except that the current generation appears to think they have a right to whatever they want, whether they have the money for it or not. Apparently, I'm of the older generation. If I don't have the money for it, I save and wait.
Now it seems to be... if I don't have the money for it, I use a credit card and walk away from it, or I pirate it, or I steal it, or I [insert something here].
OT, but no... I really dislike Impress. I actually much prefer powerpoint. It's even faster, at least in my experience, and the presentations are smoother (have had some bad luck with flickering and stuff with Impress). Luckily, I almost never have to use either one.
Is the problem the Taser, or the fact that it's considered "safe" then? I'd certainly rather be tasered than shot. And I'm glad cops user tasers instead of shooting. And I'm not sure it's "at the drop of a hat."
And frankly, I get tired of the anti-cop sentiment. Sure, we hear all the bad stories and there have been abuses and they should be dealt with. To me, those stories are roughly equivalent to, oh, senators abusing their power/position. To reflect the actions of the ones that abuse it on all cops is, IMO, very childish.
I know actually quite a few cops, they are very good people. One in particular, I know, risks his life very frequently during night raids and the like. Another one I know was in a very extended undercover thing... complete with growing a beard, changing his name, and everything. I hate it when they, who are "cops" and who actually write *gasp* speeding tickets for people who *gasp* were breaking the speed limit, get a bad rap because of the ACTUALLY bad people that end up being cops and abuse their power. I think abusing that power is sick and it should be treated very justly... which it doesn't appear it generally is. On the other hand, cop-killings don't seem to be treated very justly, either. Or most violent crimes, IMO. "Temporary insanity" and all that.
It's "excessive" force not "deadly" force. Deadly force is fine, when not excessive.
Sorry for the irritable tone. I'm a nice guy, really.:) hehe.
You see, if you are one guy writing closed source, unless it becomes HUGELY popular, you won't make any money.
I argue that that is simply not true.
I point you to Spidwerweb Software as proof. Jeff Vogel's games are not hugely popular. They have a fairly small following. They are pretty cheap, too, and they are shareware, technically. Nothing open or free, though, about them - aside from the demo's, and if you decide to pirate it/use a keygen. Which, by the way, definitely hurts his income... it's an interesting perspective on the whole "software piracy doesn't hurt anyone" thing. Anyway, he can make a living for himself without being hugely popular.
How about... air quality? Weren't you around for the last Olympics?
How about the quality of living for [insert Chinese equivalent of "Joe Smith"]? From what I understand, it's still pretty hard over there. And there are a lot of factories that don't care about the working conditions.
How about freedoms? Religion? Censorship?
Those are "just" social issues, I suppose. I for one value my freedoms quite highly, though. China does not have a lot of those freedoms. Unless, of course, you just go based on what the government tells you...
Slashdot Mirror
Combining "notification" with "without warning" seems to be a logical error. It is written sensationally. It is written as though Microsoft sneaked this on people, even though we already knew that the machine would begin shutting down every two hours before the RC actually expires. The author either didn't know that or simply left it out of the summary, making it look like Microsoft is throwing this extra wrench in several months early in an effort to get people to "pay up." Even the choice of words (e.g., "pay up") make it sound slanted.
Bias and opinion do not only come out when people say "I think" or "I believe" or "I HATE M$!!!!!!11"
I know you're joking, but sometimes it bugs me, so I choose you to bounce a rant off of. :) Windows ME is 10 years old. Let's compare Windows 7 to RHEL 2.1 next and see how they compare.
The users didn't just "know," they were told. Big difference. MS made no secret about it.
Same.
Try looking at the comments on the linked page. There's an opera dev that has commented and they appear to be working on getting it working.
No it's not. He didn't name the product and he even posted AC. You can't get any more "This is not an advertisement" ... unless he's REALLY good at it, and is drumming up curiosity.
I'm not sure what a fair comparison is.
Ok, so the EU is a single economic entity. And their economic prowess is bigger than the US's. And I'm all for improving "my" (hehe) economy. I don't think spending more is going to do it and I don't think the current administration has any plan whatsoever along those lines. It's interesting; first they spent almost $1 trillion. Then they suddenly decide they need to fix the deficit. Seems a bit wishy-washy to me.
Of course, any time someone talks about cutting deficits and not spending what you don't have, someone else chimes in that debt isn't bad, we need to have debt and credit to function, etc... it tends to be a very circular argument. But I'm fairly certain that budget deficits are not good... and we seem to be in a very bad habit of getting massive budget deficits and not caring. And frankly, I'm ashamed that most Americans don't seem to care, either. It's not surprising though; they don't seem to even know what a budget IS :)
It certainly needs some fixing. I don't know if what the current majority in Congress has in mind is "fixing" though. They have something significantly different in mind as far as an end-goal, it would seem (single-payer system). No, the current bill that is apparently stagnated is not a single-payer system, but many of the pushers for "health care reform" at the moment are in favor of a single-payer system.
I think our excuse tends to be Israel, as well. The US has been pretty much "the" ... and Britain, I guess ... supporter of Israel.
The EU is already the world's biggest economy.
Ah yes. A giant chunk of Europe vs. the US.
China and India have poverty on the run? Define "run."
Putting out fires in Mesopotamia? Hmmm. I hate to break it to you, but Iran doesn't just hate the U.S.
Figuring out HOW to treat people when they're sick? We've got that down. Where to world leaders go to get the best treatment these days? Now, if you're talking about figuring out how to treat EVERYONE when they're sick, then yes. We are trying to figure that out. And doing a very bad job of it, too.
Stop consuming a quarter of the world's resources? Hmmm... [citation needed]. I'd also like to know how much we produce with those resources in comparison to other countries.
when the US is still recovering from the diplomatic and geo-political catastrophe what was the Bush years
Yes, what we need is someone who will do what's best for other countries like Obama has promised. Someone who is willing to work with the UN, seeing how they are looking out for the best interests of us. Someone with a real vision and plan to ... to do something. We're not sure what yet.
Sarcasm aside, Obama vs. Bush is an interesting one. Bush did not have any of the stage presence that Obama did. And yet it seems that Obama, so far, is mostly stage presence and little else. He does not appear to know how to lead anything but a campaign. And the media eats it up, like all the stories about Mrs. Obama and her garden and all that. And I won't even start with Obama's cabinet and officers and whatnot... Gibbs, and Axelrod, and even Vice President Biden.
Yes, I think we definitely need a lot of "change" at the moment. More spending and more deficit is probably not the best change right now. Yes, I know, Obama is "cutting" spending at the moment. Barely, it would seem... a few million, possibly a billion, here and there ... while spending billions on other plans. (Example being the CBO just now telling us that oops, that stimulus package price tag was off by about $75 billion... very few media outlets appear to be covering it though, but here's the Washington Times). And cutting spending isn't and hasn't exactly been the rallying cry of the Democratic party. Unfortunately, the same goes for Republicans... at least, not actually cutting. But it seems they spend a lot less in general, and it seems a lot of conservatives are fed up with both parties. Who knows.
Yes, but those books only cost $15, whereas this will cost many hundreds more than that... which just proves that Apple's solution is better.
Do I need to buy this AND a iPhone?
Apple thinks you are on to something there.
And you have a really low UID. I am sure you hear that a lot.
Enjoying the conversation, by the way. Thanks. :)
I was referring to downloading specifically as well as protecting the right that I have, I would hope, to restrict access to what I have created.
The arguments for allowing free access can certainly be made. I'm a composer, not a recording artist, and I do offer at least some free PDFs. I also tend to sell cheaply, and I provide the entire PDF, not some fancy "you get this many prints" thing. And all I ask is that you buy the sheet music for yourself or for your group. (In other words, please don't print off copies for all your friends and all the other brass groups, it's only $5 and I let you copy it for everyone in your group or even in your choir, etc). I think that's fair, so that's how I did it.
I agree that the greatest opposers are the large labels and whatnot, and that many "indie" artists seem to somewhat be ok with it. What my big thing is, I think it should be up to the artist. Sure, he may be hurting himself, but I think it should be up to the artist to allow downloads of his music. And if he doesn't want to allow it, that's his decision. His business decision. I think he should have that decision protected. Same goes for software, for that matter. If I want to sell my closed-source software, I think I should be protected in that. I think keygen programs (in the case of Jeff Vogel's shareware) shouldn't be legal as it circumvents the very minor attempt to ... well, make money. Heh.
Unfortunately, those that have no problem doing the keygens drive the price up for the honest people that actually want to support the shareware programmer.
Laws should serve to protect people from other people. Not for imposing random restrictions on people's liberties.
Fair enough. Not allowing free distribution of my creations (music, video, whatever) if I choose not to distribute it freely seems like it protects *my* rights. If you can't afford to buy my music/video/whatever, I don't know that that negates the law. Yes, it restricts you... but I'm not sure that's a Bad Thing.
Probably lawyer fees. :P
Unless, of course, "I can't afford it" isn't an actual can't-afford but don't-wish-to-afford.
but you haven't helped anyone doing so.
True. I may not have helped anyone by following the speed limit or not doing marijuana, either.
Making your own laws, essentially, based on what you see helping/hurting or not-helping/not-hurting may not be the best way to go about it... and deciding not to follow a law simply because you don't feel you hurt anyone by not following it is an interesting take, as well.
But most people will say "Most people overestimate their skills, sure, but not me."
No, money doesn't determine the value; that's obvious. I can pay money for something valuable, and I can get something valuable for free.
What I'm arguing is that doing something illegal because you want it but can't pay for it is... a lame excuse. If you want to really go through the effort and convince me that pirating music is ethically ok even if illegal, then go for it; but excusing your piracy because you couldn't afford it is ... well, lame. :)
He loves music, but can't afford to buy everything that he wants
I have never understood why this this makes sense to people as an excuse... except that the current generation appears to think they have a right to whatever they want, whether they have the money for it or not. Apparently, I'm of the older generation. If I don't have the money for it, I save and wait.
Now it seems to be ... if I don't have the money for it, I use a credit card and walk away from it, or I pirate it, or I steal it, or I [insert something here].
OT, but no... I really dislike Impress. I actually much prefer powerpoint. It's even faster, at least in my experience, and the presentations are smoother (have had some bad luck with flickering and stuff with Impress). Luckily, I almost never have to use either one.
They look good on paper. And powerpoint presentations.
Is the problem the Taser, or the fact that it's considered "safe" then? I'd certainly rather be tasered than shot. And I'm glad cops user tasers instead of shooting. And I'm not sure it's "at the drop of a hat."
And frankly, I get tired of the anti-cop sentiment. Sure, we hear all the bad stories and there have been abuses and they should be dealt with. To me, those stories are roughly equivalent to, oh, senators abusing their power/position. To reflect the actions of the ones that abuse it on all cops is, IMO, very childish.
I know actually quite a few cops, they are very good people. One in particular, I know, risks his life very frequently during night raids and the like. Another one I know was in a very extended undercover thing... complete with growing a beard, changing his name, and everything. I hate it when they, who are "cops" and who actually write *gasp* speeding tickets for people who *gasp* were breaking the speed limit, get a bad rap because of the ACTUALLY bad people that end up being cops and abuse their power. I think abusing that power is sick and it should be treated very justly... which it doesn't appear it generally is. On the other hand, cop-killings don't seem to be treated very justly, either. Or most violent crimes, IMO. "Temporary insanity" and all that.
It's "excessive" force not "deadly" force. Deadly force is fine, when not excessive.
Sorry for the irritable tone. I'm a nice guy, really. :) hehe.
You see, if you are one guy writing closed source, unless it becomes HUGELY popular, you won't make any money.
I argue that that is simply not true.
I point you to Spidwerweb Software as proof. Jeff Vogel's games are not hugely popular. They have a fairly small following. They are pretty cheap, too, and they are shareware, technically. Nothing open or free, though, about them - aside from the demo's, and if you decide to pirate it/use a keygen. Which, by the way, definitely hurts his income... it's an interesting perspective on the whole "software piracy doesn't hurt anyone" thing. Anyway, he can make a living for himself without being hugely popular.
How about ... air quality? Weren't you around for the last Olympics?
How about the quality of living for [insert Chinese equivalent of "Joe Smith"]? From what I understand, it's still pretty hard over there. And there are a lot of factories that don't care about the working conditions.
How about freedoms? Religion? Censorship?
Those are "just" social issues, I suppose. I for one value my freedoms quite highly, though. China does not have a lot of those freedoms. Unless, of course, you just go based on what the government tells you...