"Seriously, I know, you are joking, but nobody seems to jokingly wear, say, Swastika on their clothing, yet the Hammer-and-Sickle remain all the rage:-("
I think the difference is largely because the worst of the Soviet Union happened under Stalin, a nutbar, whose nuttery was not baked into the ideology of Communism (at least not as written and espoused.) After Stalin, it mellowed.
On the other hand, it's hard to separate Nazism from Hitler and his evil nuttery is baked into its core. Nazism doesn't really have a period when it kind of mellowed out, and it would be laughable to make an argument that Hitler was a nutter who somehow distorted true Nazism.
And, also, a big thing is that Communism is essentially an unrealistic utopian social and economic scheme, which can actually sorta work in a way in very limited conditions, such as the Israeli Kibbutz (sp?). It just doesn't scale, and big problems happen when it is not voluntary, so the government has to keep the people in line.
But I don't think there's been a similar, small-scale version of Nazism that avoids the hatred and nastiness inherent in that ideology.
"He is worth 2,300,000,000.00 US. He has other assets he could sell or he could have gotten a low interest loan to cover the taxes till his Disney stock was released."
The vast majority of that is tied up in Pixar stock, which he might not even be able to sell at this point in the merger process.
Yeah, that'd work too. Or a Mac-style menu bar that appears on secondary screens when you hit a key combination, but otherwise isn't there.
Lost screen real estate is less of an issue for me in this case than the sheer convenience of not having to bounce back and forth between screens as if I was watching a tennis match from mid-court.
At the very least, Apple should provide an option to have a clone menubar on every screen, rather than just having it on the main screen.
I have to admit, Windows' approach works a lot better when you have multiple heads - on the Mac, you can't really dedicate a second monitor to an application, because no matter what you have to keep going back to the main screen. On Windows, you can put the app on the second monitor and stay focused on that screen, without having to go back and forth between screens all the time.
It reminds me a little of when I shorted the contacts on the rechargable battery from my circa-1985 Sony Discman. The battery was about a third of an inch thick, with the same footprint as the Discman itself. The plastic around the contacts melted pretty quickly.
"Many people who might take a stand against anti-freedom activities such as this aren't even aware of the issue, just because it isn't reported well by major news outlets."
Or, more likely, you get Fox News and right wingers or spineless suckups at other networks who will parrot the government's empty rationalizations, and push the idea that if you oppose the institution of a police state, you're supporting the terrorists.
"I agree. It does seem like peripherals are a bit slow to come out, but new Dell laptops are also touting ExpressCard so its not like its only Apple (like when FireWire first came out)."
The main issue for Apple isn't the ExpressCard format, it's that Apple went with ExpressCard*34*.
Even if ExpressCard becomes popular quickly, most products will be the larger format, not the 34mm format.
"Britannica pays over 4,000 contributors and editors, and only prints a new version every couple of years."
They update their online and disk-based content several times a year.
Wikipedia may "update" more often, but most of those "updates" are the equivalent of the rough drafts produced in-house at Britannica. Wikipedia does its edits and corrections openly, during which time readers can be subjected to crappy content. Britannica doesn't subject readers to half-baked content.
They do have it all on their website, you know. I think you have to pay for full access, but it's a lot cheaper than a set of encyclopedias.
Or you could buy the circa-$50 disk version, and install that, if you're running Windows or using a PPC Mac (as of yet their product doesn't run on Intel Macs due to some component developed by a third party which hasn't been made universal). Then you'd have access to it all without even needing to be online.
"Sure, you might be able to search for and find a book your looking for in a nice slick piece of software, but then where you last left that book somewhere in your home is the problem your having that software can't solve."
Delicious Library lets you record where you're storing it. That's useful if you have your books distributed among several bookcases in several rooms, or some at home and some at work, or some at home, some at your office, and some at the client site, etc.
It also lets you keep track when you've loaned your books or movies to friends.
One cool thing about Delicious Library is that one of the pieces of information it pulls from Amazon is the resale value.
If I'm not mistaken, it also has some means of putting items in your library up for sale via Amazon. I don't know how far that automation extends, however - it might just bring up a relevant page at Amazon.
"cisco uses it in their kit. soes does hp. ibm is another. do you think that between the three, they can't come up with say, $75k/year? "
I'm sure they could.
The point is that OpenBSD can't passively wait for donations. They need to make an effort to GET that money, by putting in the face time to build friendly relationships with these organizations, so that they will happily support the project.
It'll never happen if the companies never hear from OpenBSD except when OpenBSD has a cash crisis.
"GPL software cannot have non-free forks soaking up all the income and not giving back to the project, because it does not allow closed derivitive works."
GPL doesn't demand that money be given back, only that code be given back. de Raadt would be in the same boat if his projects were GPL. He'd have more code, but no more money than he currently has.
Most vendors, landlords, and connectivity providers don't accept payment in GPL'd code.
" I think all software needs to be updated, but surely it isn't just FOSS developers that are out of touch with the needs of the disabled."
It's probably more of an issue with FOSS. Commercial developers can instruct their workers to improve the software to help disabled people. If they want to sell to the government, they may *have* to do so.
With FOSS, that isn't necessarily the case, and improvements may have to wait for someone to have a "improve usability for the disabled" itch to scratch.
Because the most likely people with that itch are themselves disabled, there's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem there.
Improving accessibility is a good thing, but it's not sexy in the same way as developing the umpteenth bloody useless 3D user interface.
"Although I agree with you that many people are just burying their heads in the sand, there are actually reasons to be a little bit wary of the dire predictions."
Only if you ignore the fact that there's a vast difference over what the scientists could do in the 70's and what they have been able to do for the last 15 years or so.
Data analysis *alone* has leapt in sophistication and its ability to handle large volumes of data, because of advances in technology since the 70s.
Just consider what kind of primitive computational tools they were using in 1975. A few climate scientists with a laptops and modern software probably have more horsepower available than was available to all US climate scientists in 1975, combined.
It should come as no surprise that they were wrong in 1975, given their limited capabilities. I'm sure there were plenty of as-wrong doozies in other sciences and in medicine. Consider the difference between the state of neurology in 1975, and where it stands today, after so many advances in imaging technology.
Slashdot Mirror
"Seriously, I know, you are joking, but nobody seems to jokingly wear, say, Swastika on their clothing, yet the Hammer-and-Sickle remain all the rage
I think the difference is largely because the worst of the Soviet Union happened under Stalin, a nutbar, whose nuttery was not baked into the ideology of Communism (at least not as written and espoused.) After Stalin, it mellowed.
On the other hand, it's hard to separate Nazism from Hitler and his evil nuttery is baked into its core. Nazism doesn't really have a period when it kind of mellowed out, and it would be laughable to make an argument that Hitler was a nutter who somehow distorted true Nazism.
And, also, a big thing is that Communism is essentially an unrealistic utopian social and economic scheme, which can actually sorta work in a way in very limited conditions, such as the Israeli Kibbutz (sp?). It just doesn't scale, and big problems happen when it is not voluntary, so the government has to keep the people in line.
But I don't think there's been a similar, small-scale version of Nazism that avoids the hatred and nastiness inherent in that ideology.
"He is worth 2,300,000,000.00 US. He has other assets he could sell or he could have gotten a low interest loan to cover the taxes till his Disney stock was released."
The vast majority of that is tied up in Pixar stock, which he might not even be able to sell at this point in the merger process.
Yeah, that'd work too. Or a Mac-style menu bar that appears on secondary screens when you hit a key combination, but otherwise isn't there.
Lost screen real estate is less of an issue for me in this case than the sheer convenience of not having to bounce back and forth between screens as if I was watching a tennis match from mid-court.
At the very least, Apple should provide an option to have a clone menubar on every screen, rather than just having it on the main screen.
I have to admit, Windows' approach works a lot better when you have multiple heads - on the Mac, you can't really dedicate a second monitor to an application, because no matter what you have to keep going back to the main screen. On Windows, you can put the app on the second monitor and stay focused on that screen, without having to go back and forth between screens all the time.
It reminds me a little of when I shorted the contacts on the rechargable battery from my circa-1985 Sony Discman. The battery was about a third of an inch thick, with the same footprint as the Discman itself. The plastic around the contacts melted pretty quickly.
You clearly didn't even read my comment. I don't even have *cable* with which to watch CNN and Fox.
"Many people who might take a stand against anti-freedom activities such as this aren't even aware of the issue, just because it isn't reported well by major news outlets."
Or, more likely, you get Fox News and right wingers or spineless suckups at other networks who will parrot the government's empty rationalizations, and push the idea that if you oppose the institution of a police state, you're supporting the terrorists.
But then you bought a second DVD, and it all went to hell.
At the bottom of the article, he gives a bunch of links to the technical documentation from Apple.
Mac OS X ABI Mach-O File Format Reference
Executing Mach-O Files
Overview of Dynamic Libraries
Microsoft's Vista team has invented a new Daisy-Chain Vacillator.
"I agree. It does seem like peripherals are a bit slow to come out, but new Dell laptops are also touting ExpressCard so its not like its only Apple (like when FireWire first came out)."
The main issue for Apple isn't the ExpressCard format, it's that Apple went with ExpressCard*34*.
Even if ExpressCard becomes popular quickly, most products will be the larger format, not the 34mm format.
"Britannica pays over 4,000 contributors and editors, and only prints a new version every couple of years."
They update their online and disk-based content several times a year.
Wikipedia may "update" more often, but most of those "updates" are the equivalent of the rough drafts produced in-house at Britannica. Wikipedia does its edits and corrections openly, during which time readers can be subjected to crappy content. Britannica doesn't subject readers to half-baked content.
Volkswagen owns Lamborghini.
Ford owns Aston Martin.
Etc.
They do have it all on their website, you know. I think you have to pay for full access, but it's a lot cheaper than a set of encyclopedias.
Or you could buy the circa-$50 disk version, and install that, if you're running Windows or using a PPC Mac (as of yet their product doesn't run on Intel Macs due to some component developed by a third party which hasn't been made universal). Then you'd have access to it all without even needing to be online.
"Sure, you might be able to search for and find a book your looking for in a nice slick piece of software, but then where you last left that book somewhere in your home is the problem your having that software can't solve."
Delicious Library lets you record where you're storing it. That's useful if you have your books distributed among several bookcases in several rooms, or some at home and some at work, or some at home, some at your office, and some at the client site, etc.
It also lets you keep track when you've loaned your books or movies to friends.
One cool thing about Delicious Library is that one of the pieces of information it pulls from Amazon is the resale value.
If I'm not mistaken, it also has some means of putting items in your library up for sale via Amazon. I don't know how far that automation extends, however - it might just bring up a relevant page at Amazon.
When I bought Delicious Library, I wound up spending all night scanning in all my books.
Note: some items trigger easter eggs when you add them to your library.
Expression has existed for quite a while, and was on the market well before Microsoft acquired the company who developed it.
It used to be marketed by Fractal Design, aka MetaCreations, which was bought by Corel.
"cisco uses it in their kit. soes does hp. ibm is another. do you think that between the three, they can't come up with say, $75k/year? "
I'm sure they could.
The point is that OpenBSD can't passively wait for donations. They need to make an effort to GET that money, by putting in the face time to build friendly relationships with these organizations, so that they will happily support the project.
It'll never happen if the companies never hear from OpenBSD except when OpenBSD has a cash crisis.
I'm not sure why it needs to be full-time-or-nothing.
And as for hosting costs, shouldn't that be relatively easy to dispense with, by distributing via torrents or donated space on mirrors?
"GPL software cannot have non-free forks soaking up all the income and not giving back to the project, because it does not allow closed derivitive works."
GPL doesn't demand that money be given back, only that code be given back. de Raadt would be in the same boat if his projects were GPL. He'd have more code, but no more money than he currently has.
Most vendors, landlords, and connectivity providers don't accept payment in GPL'd code.
"The CDs that OpenBSD project sells is their main source of revenue and support."
It obviously, and unsurprisingly, isn't working for them. They should work on finding other ways to raise money.
"It needs a patron for whom a regular $300 is not even pocket change."
No, clearly it needs to get a clue about fundraising, which appears to have long been little more than an afterthought.
And maybe they need to adjust their burn rate to suit their lack of interest in fundraising.
" I think all software needs to be updated, but surely it isn't just FOSS developers that are out of touch with the needs of the disabled."
It's probably more of an issue with FOSS. Commercial developers can instruct their workers to improve the software to help disabled people. If they want to sell to the government, they may *have* to do so.
With FOSS, that isn't necessarily the case, and improvements may have to wait for someone to have a "improve usability for the disabled" itch to scratch.
Because the most likely people with that itch are themselves disabled, there's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem there.
Improving accessibility is a good thing, but it's not sexy in the same way as developing the umpteenth bloody useless 3D user interface.
"Although I agree with you that many people are just burying their heads in the sand, there are actually reasons to be a little bit wary of the dire predictions."
Only if you ignore the fact that there's a vast difference over what the scientists could do in the 70's and what they have been able to do for the last 15 years or so.
Data analysis *alone* has leapt in sophistication and its ability to handle large volumes of data, because of advances in technology since the 70s.
Just consider what kind of primitive computational tools they were using in 1975. A few climate scientists with a laptops and modern software probably have more horsepower available than was available to all US climate scientists in 1975, combined.
It should come as no surprise that they were wrong in 1975, given their limited capabilities. I'm sure there were plenty of as-wrong doozies in other sciences and in medicine. Consider the difference between the state of neurology in 1975, and where it stands today, after so many advances in imaging technology.