This whole thing started when one - ONE - person came to Digg offering to buy away it's top contributers. That was the guy running Netscape, it's not a new industry if one clown has the stupid idea that it will make money. Digg nearly unanimously made fun of him and it hasn't popped up again since. The details are "kind of vague" because it's kind of stupid.
Using common sense, we can see that this would in no way be feasible. How could you make $1000 a month profit out of simply acquiring links? Even if you could, all you'd have to do is set up a bot that scrapes popurls, digg, reddit, daily rotation, etc., and compares the links with the list from last hour's scrape, submitting the new links. We're talking twenty lines in Bash using wget, sed, and grep; I wrote one myself for my own use, and it filters out dupes as well. That's pretty much all you see the results of these days anyway; a story will pop up on Digg, and then two days later on Slashdot, and then it will run down the LXer feed for a couple days and then head over to Mad Penguin...
The craze for RSS and social bookmarking have produced an over-inflated information economy where the same story gets blabbed on every blog just like the same story shows up on all the TV news channels at once. Compounded by the link to a blog that links to a blog that links to a blog, etc. ad maximus infinitum, that links to the same damn story you read two weeks ago.
There's too many linkers out there and not enough original reporters. And let's face it, when the entire world becomes bloggers, the only way you're going to have originality is if everybody blogs only about what's going on from their own view out the window by their computer. And won't that be FUN?
And I mean ESR as well as all the people agreeing with him.
I know another operating system which started out open source code with it's maintainer deep in the hobbyist community before seeing money waved in front of his nose, and deciding to ditch his personal values in favor of conquering the Earth. That was Bill Gates. Because of that, Windows is a piece of shit.
Linux IS successful RIGHT NOW!!! Otherwise, why would it even be discussed? Why are you all here reading this? Why would anyone even care about it? Why would Sony be pre-loading it on the PlayStation? Why would some 270 distros and flavors of it exist on DistroWatch?
Huh? Did Linux get where it is today by sacrificing it's ideals and compromising it's freedom? Only in America is this strategy considered viable. Go torture some more prisoners to protect your free democracy from "terrorists". And then make what was free enslaving so you can sit on your tinpot throne and oink about how you conquered the world.
The drive to Windozize Linux will not save it, but ruin it. Can't you blind fools see that that's right where the enemies of technology freedom want to lead you? Linux will become a piece of shit. We've been down this road before.
Make no mistake, everybody who goes around pushing universal desktop acceptance of Linux cares about nothing but money. What people like RMS (AND ME) do is advocate Free Software only as long as it promotes freedom. Freedom of technology for everybody is good, and making it non-free will not be a benefit.
But I have a flash-back coming. I've lost this fight before. And so, I run away again as I ran away from Windows. This time to BSD or Open Solaris or GNU/HURD. And yes, thank you, I am a fucking flaming zealot. Better to be that than a greedy, shitty, fat, theiving SWINE!
Flame me all you want, I'm goddamn proud to say it. Better believe, though, if it comes to that day, I'll be ten times the enemy of Linux that I ever was of Windows. And I will not be alone.
Just this last week! Initial problem: In 3-computer household, lightning strikes, killing DSL gateway router. It was a very powerful strike; the surge protector didn't save it, only half of the PCs in the house got knocked out, and a light bulb popped and a battery operated toy on top of my monitor started up all by itself. Freak accident.
Partial solution: New router arrives, but of course QWest doesn't support my Linux boxen. Tossing the Windows exectuable CDs, I type random IP addys into Firefox until I find the secret one that connectes to the router without the CD.
New Problem: Connecting the *second* computer to the router. The line is live, but the same IP doesn't work. Neither does any other. It simply won't let me in. search for hours for the solution. It's midnight...
Solution: and ANOTHER lightning storm makes the power dip just enough to reboot everything. When all the machines come back up, the second computer now shows up on the network. It connects. Problem solved.
Yes, I take credit for this solution. I was cursing Cthulhu, who answered.
@storminmormon: Sweetheart, "pacifist" and "innocent, non-threatening" are not even the same thing. Ain't even the same ballpark. And child molestation is a mental illness, not hostility. And the WHOOOOOLE POINT to outwitting the violent before you get out of bed in the morning is so "YOU NEVER HAVE TO FACE THE VIOLENT", and also so their planned attacks (targeting anybody at all) are foiled.
This variation of the GPL is bad. NOT BECAUSE PACIFISM IS BAD as earlier numbskulls in this thread claimed. But because if you're going to celebrate freedom, you have to extend freedom to EVERYBODY, incluing those who shoot bombs, drugs, dogs, etc. with whom you disagree.
I don't like it that this exception shit is going around. Either we're all free or we're not. The GPL is being liquified until everybody gets to make it whatever they want. Then what is the point of having a GPL at all?
"If no one opposes the violent, the violent win. Period."
Day-um, who taught you philosophy? Ross Perot? If no one opposes the violent, the violent have no one to be violent to. Violence, like velocity, requires direction. While living my life personally by pacifistic means (I used to be very violent. It was go Buddhist, or end up in the chair.), I have since defused every potentially hostile situation by simply standing my ground and quietly saying "I am not afraid of you." Didn't matter if they could kill me. I say it anyway. If they're still thinking a minute later, that's my cue to point out: "And you need fear nothing from me." Nevertheless, I am never pushed over, and in fact always get my way.
Your one-liner begs the question that violence always wins. Or is even the only means of winning. Some of us beat the violent by out-witting them before they got out of bed this morning.
I'm ready for drastic pragmatic solutions. Make it against the law to purchase anything from an email. Make a law that no commercial entity can send email to anybody without that person specifically activating membership in the organization. Put captcha systems on all email interfaces, even installed systems, and outlaw text-based email interfaces that can be scripted. I do not care how extreme it is. Outlaw email, period, and we can just leave comments in each other's blogs (my blog captcha stops 100% of all spam!!!).
This is stupid. We're the species that's trying to cure cancer and AIDS, and explore space, and work towards world peace, but we're all helpless to cure our electronic advertizing disease.
Open Source software isn't nearly complex enough. We used to be assured that computers were functioning at full capacity. Then along came Microsoft cripple-ware, and all of a sudden computers were nothing but gaming consoles with WebTV functionality grafted on. We had to wait until a free Unix to run on our home machines before we could actually COMPUTE again. For the people to whom compiling your own kernel is just too much to handle, then COMPUTERS are too much for you to handle - go get yourself a dandy little cell phone to surf the web and a swift little XBox to play games on. With my blessings.
Computers are powerful. I mean HOLY-SHIT-I-DIDN'T-KNOW-THAT-WAS-POSSIBLE powerful. They haven't come near potential yet. They will evolve in leaps and bounds. Now there is the box that I need to program in six languages, produce 3D ray-traced scenes, optimize work-related tasks with an ever-growing library of scripts that approach closer to artificial intelligence with each new patch, catalog all useful human knowledge, and generally use office apps and accounting apps and earn my living on. And there is the box for Joe Sixpack to play games on, or for gramma to email her bridge friends on. At some point, as our needs evolve further and further apart, doesn't it seem just plain illogical to call them both a computer? One of us needs a new name.
But of course, Joe Sixpack is in the majority, so he will have the floor. And Leet Egghead will use his wits to circumvent the system in the background like always and keep using his "complex" software to do "complex" things. What a pointless question. Hey, is rocket science too complex? Is organic chemistry too complex? Is brain surgury too complex?
Congratulations, I have skimmed the comments so far up to here and you are THEEEEE ONLY person to have spoken on the subject with anything resembling a brain, and that goes double in the case of TFA! So... for your sake, I hope you only duck into Slashdot when the need is pressing, as do I. Whatever's wrong with the rest of these people, I wouldn't want to catch it.
You do not have to be on drugs. You do not have to be insane. You have to be a hell of a lot smarter than average to pull it off, substance abuse and insanity is then optional. You do not have to be on drugs. You do not have to be insane. You have to be a hell of a lot smarter than average to pull it off, substance abuse and insanity is then optional. How many times do I have to fucking say it? Show me the definition where it says, "You must be THIS HIGH to write gonzo style."?
Jesus H. Christ! If a zombie ate your brain, it must have died of malnutrition! Look, gonzo-style journalism is nowhere near anything you're describing. Gonzo writing style has but one qualification over merely very good vanilla writing: BALLS. Big, sweaty, meaty, hairy, jocky balls. Think of Macho Man Randy Savage. Now think of him with an IQ of 250 and a couple PhD's under his belt, pounding a keyboard under the influence of nothing stiffer than an espresso to make sure he stays randy. That's gonzo. "If you have to ask, you'll never know!"
Sweetheart, sit down. Let's go over this one more time: writing something and CALLING it gonzo journalism automatically disqualifies it from being gonzo journalism (especially as a tribute to HST). Do you make a surrealist painting and title it "surrealist painting?" No, you call it "Still life of purple skunk and tofu on bed of nails", while making sure that nothing in the painting resembles skunk, nails, or tofu.
Here, not to be crude, is all that gonzo journalism requires: BALLS. Hairy, sweaty, jocky, clanging balls. You have 'em or you don't. PJ O'Rourke before his liver got it's own writing career, Harlan Ellison before he became an Old Maid fussing over his mush and antiques, Gore Vidal (hollwed be his name) right now. A handbasket of others are kicking around here and there...
One thing I can guarantee, this Chris Dahlen better be bought with one pint of Mad Dog 20/20, because he's not worth two. How ironic that an article that reads like a third grade almost-English essay ("Where they hell did they go?") is asking "Where have all the good writers gone?"
And the bonus-round jackpot answer iiiisss: "Not behind your desk, Mr. Dahlen!" But rest assured, the counter-culture press is thriving like a pot-garden in South Central. You just go back to ignoring it and we'll do fine! And I'd be careful bandying Hunter S.'s name about with such wanton ignorance. Hunter may be miles above you on a cloud in Heaven, but the man always had damn good aim.
We're just going to have to wait a couple of generations and see if the gene pool ups it's standards, aren't we?
I mean, you were born for free. Did your parents give you the bill for raising you? You live in a free country. Where's your payment to the revolutionaries who fought and died so you could have it? Don't tell me your tax dollars are there to compensate patriots for their deaths - I think that if that was all they were fighting for, they would have said "Forget it!" Somebody, somewhere (I hope!) loves you for free. Public libraries are free. No, the piddling taxes that some people pay don't count; you can pay zero taxes and still use the library anyway. Solar power is free. Air is free. Rain is free. I plant seeds in my yard and a garden grows for free. And then there's all the free Internet you surf, plus that you can post your trolls for free.
This "technology" stuff must still be new to everybody, but the idea behind technological progress is to keep giving humanity more and more benefits at less and less cost. To achieve the pinacle of that goal, we will someday eventually abolish the need for money at all. Part of that progress is open source software, all free. More important than that is open technology. We aren't there just yet (it will help when we get solar power to be more efficient than 6%), but we've come a long way from stone knives and bear skins, too.
When a scientist discovers something, they share their knowledge freely and it is passed down to future generations forever. For free. The same for any art - did Leonardo da Vinci include terms of use in his notebooks? Did Beethoven write a DRM program into the beginning of his symphonies? Did Moses copyright the first five books of the Bible? Did Michaelangelo watermark the Sistine Chappel? Did Charles Babbage, the first hacker, patent any of his technology? True, these craftspeople were, in some cases, paid a small sum for their services at the time. But when they died, the beauty and intelligence of their work didn't go away.
"No Free Lunch" - oh, how the greedy trolls of the world who love nothing but gold in their pocket wish it were so, with all their tin-plated hearts! Nevertheless, the people are sharing for free, and they're having a blast doing it. Even if they weren't, it would be worth it just to piss off people like you.
With a scowl on his face he said "I don't support Mac and I don't support Linux".
My own mother-in-law tops that. She calls us up and says she found some new software to buy for us. "But we use Linux!", we tell her. She cannot bring herself to speak such a foreign word. We explain that the software won't work on Linux, and anyway we have tons of better stuff for free. She buys it and sends it anyway. Since DRM paranoia has stopped all retailers from ever refunding cash for software again, we call her up and say, "Gee, thanks, it sold for 50 cents at the yard sale." A few months pass, and we have to do it ALL OVER AGAIN. FOR SIX YEARS NOW! I ask her if she can please buy some blank CDs while she's there so I could at least burn new distros that I download. "Blank CDs? Without any software? Why would you want those?"
With all those fans out there tossing Ubuntu CDs out to everybody, I wonder how many Ubuntu disk recipients take the CD home, insert it, wait patiently for the Windows auto-install dialog to start, give up after five minutes, throw the CD away, and go the rest of their lives saying that Linux doesn't work...
I doubt the PC would be quite as popular today as it is if it weren't for Gates.
Well, now that he's gone, I guess things will never be the same for you. You might as well give up computers forever. You can donate your old machine to users of MacIntosh, Unix, and Amiga, so they can pick up where they left off before BG ever heard of computers.
I think they should charge a million dollars a month, flat-out. They should put haywires in the hardware so it literally explodes and kills people if it's not running Windows. They should deliberately install malware rebranded as a service to which you HAVE to provide credit-card numbers, emails, etc. so that your identity can be stolen, your bank accounts siphoned, etc. They should have the email inbox automatically click through and sign you up for every spam offer and 419 scam you get. They should put it in the EULA that they can come to your house and rape your entire family whenever they want. They should have Bill Gates simply BUY the whole country and establish a dictatorship with mandatory RFID implants for everybody. They should make you get the logo tattooed on your forehead.
Because maybe, just MAYBE, at least one or two of these naive suckers might finally stumble upon a CLUE!!! But this is a nice start. Hats off, Microsoft, for the new ammunition.
If only we could get Microsoft to patent stupidity. I would even help fund the effort and it's enforcement by siccing their lawyers on any luser who exhibited stupidity without the proper license agreement with Microsoft.
Rare though I login to Slashdot these days, I made an exception just to say: "Damn, you're smart! What the heck are you doing on Slashdot?"
Now begins the standard disclaimer meant for the general public:
"Buy a fish, name it life, so you'll have one!"
and I might add to the standard disclaimer, "For GODS SAKE, find SOMETHING else to do with your time!"
Here:
"The only people who do not accept this idea are those who have vested interests in it not happening.Usually these people do not go public with the opinion, because One Laptop Per Child is a non-profit organization with a purely charitable and non-profit purpose. Heads of State know that their most valuable natural resource is their children. Scaling education as we know it will take too long and be too expensive. This is a very economic solution, one that engages the children in the betterment of their own education."
-Nicholas Negroponte, in recent interview on his $100. laptop project
Couldn't have said it better myself. It's a full on war between the people who want a better tomorrow for the world, and the Nazis who want the human race to be forever enslaved to a few Sadistic millionaires. And sweetheart, when that revolution comes to a head, bet your fuckin' ass I'll be out there fighting for the right side.
Slashdot Mirror
This whole thing started when one - ONE - person came to Digg offering to buy away it's top contributers. That was the guy running Netscape, it's not a new industry if one clown has the stupid idea that it will make money. Digg nearly unanimously made fun of him and it hasn't popped up again since. The details are "kind of vague" because it's kind of stupid.
Using common sense, we can see that this would in no way be feasible. How could you make $1000 a month profit out of simply acquiring links? Even if you could, all you'd have to do is set up a bot that scrapes popurls, digg, reddit, daily rotation, etc., and compares the links with the list from last hour's scrape, submitting the new links. We're talking twenty lines in Bash using wget, sed, and grep; I wrote one myself for my own use, and it filters out dupes as well. That's pretty much all you see the results of these days anyway; a story will pop up on Digg, and then two days later on Slashdot, and then it will run down the LXer feed for a couple days and then head over to Mad Penguin...
The craze for RSS and social bookmarking have produced an over-inflated information economy where the same story gets blabbed on every blog just like the same story shows up on all the TV news channels at once. Compounded by the link to a blog that links to a blog that links to a blog, etc. ad maximus infinitum, that links to the same damn story you read two weeks ago.
There's too many linkers out there and not enough original reporters. And let's face it, when the entire world becomes bloggers, the only way you're going to have originality is if everybody blogs only about what's going on from their own view out the window by their computer. And won't that be FUN?
And I mean ESR as well as all the people agreeing with him.
I know another operating system which started out open source code with it's maintainer deep in the hobbyist community before seeing money waved in front of his nose, and deciding to ditch his personal values in favor of conquering the Earth. That was Bill Gates. Because of that, Windows is a piece of shit.
Linux IS successful RIGHT NOW!!! Otherwise, why would it even be discussed? Why are you all here reading this? Why would anyone even care about it? Why would Sony be pre-loading it on the PlayStation? Why would some 270 distros and flavors of it exist on DistroWatch?
Huh? Did Linux get where it is today by sacrificing it's ideals and compromising it's freedom? Only in America is this strategy considered viable. Go torture some more prisoners to protect your free democracy from "terrorists". And then make what was free enslaving so you can sit on your tinpot throne and oink about how you conquered the world.
The drive to Windozize Linux will not save it, but ruin it. Can't you blind fools see that that's right where the enemies of technology freedom want to lead you? Linux will become a piece of shit. We've been down this road before.
Make no mistake, everybody who goes around pushing universal desktop acceptance of Linux cares about nothing but money. What people like RMS (AND ME) do is advocate Free Software only as long as it promotes freedom. Freedom of technology for everybody is good, and making it non-free will not be a benefit.
But I have a flash-back coming. I've lost this fight before. And so, I run away again as I ran away from Windows. This time to BSD or Open Solaris or GNU/HURD. And yes, thank you, I am a fucking flaming zealot. Better to be that than a greedy, shitty, fat, theiving SWINE!
Flame me all you want, I'm goddamn proud to say it. Better believe, though, if it comes to that day, I'll be ten times the enemy of Linux that I ever was of Windows. And I will not be alone.
Just this last week! Initial problem: In 3-computer household, lightning strikes, killing DSL gateway router. It was a very powerful strike; the surge protector didn't save it, only half of the PCs in the house got knocked out, and a light bulb popped and a battery operated toy on top of my monitor started up all by itself. Freak accident.
Partial solution: New router arrives, but of course QWest doesn't support my Linux boxen. Tossing the Windows exectuable CDs, I type random IP addys into Firefox until I find the secret one that connectes to the router without the CD.
New Problem: Connecting the *second* computer to the router. The line is live, but the same IP doesn't work. Neither does any other. It simply won't let me in. search for hours for the solution. It's midnight...
Solution: and ANOTHER lightning storm makes the power dip just enough to reboot everything. When all the machines come back up, the second computer now shows up on the network. It connects. Problem solved.
Yes, I take credit for this solution. I was cursing Cthulhu, who answered.
@storminmormon: Sweetheart, "pacifist" and "innocent, non-threatening" are not even the same thing. Ain't even the same ballpark. And child molestation is a mental illness, not hostility. And the WHOOOOOLE POINT to outwitting the violent before you get out of bed in the morning is so "YOU NEVER HAVE TO FACE THE VIOLENT", and also so their planned attacks (targeting anybody at all) are foiled.
DUMB AAAAAASSSSSSSSSS
This variation of the GPL is bad. NOT BECAUSE PACIFISM IS BAD as earlier numbskulls in this thread claimed. But because if you're going to celebrate freedom, you have to extend freedom to EVERYBODY, incluing those who shoot bombs, drugs, dogs, etc. with whom you disagree. I don't like it that this exception shit is going around. Either we're all free or we're not. The GPL is being liquified until everybody gets to make it whatever they want. Then what is the point of having a GPL at all?
"If no one opposes the violent, the violent win. Period."
Day-um, who taught you philosophy? Ross Perot? If no one opposes the violent, the violent have no one to be violent to. Violence, like velocity, requires direction. While living my life personally by pacifistic means (I used to be very violent. It was go Buddhist, or end up in the chair.), I have since defused every potentially hostile situation by simply standing my ground and quietly saying "I am not afraid of you." Didn't matter if they could kill me. I say it anyway. If they're still thinking a minute later, that's my cue to point out: "And you need fear nothing from me." Nevertheless, I am never pushed over, and in fact always get my way.
Your one-liner begs the question that violence always wins. Or is even the only means of winning. Some of us beat the violent by out-witting them before they got out of bed this morning.
I'm ready for drastic pragmatic solutions. Make it against the law to purchase anything from an email. Make a law that no commercial entity can send email to anybody without that person specifically activating membership in the organization. Put captcha systems on all email interfaces, even installed systems, and outlaw text-based email interfaces that can be scripted. I do not care how extreme it is. Outlaw email, period, and we can just leave comments in each other's blogs (my blog captcha stops 100% of all spam!!!).
This is stupid. We're the species that's trying to cure cancer and AIDS, and explore space, and work towards world peace, but we're all helpless to cure our electronic advertizing disease.
Open Source software isn't nearly complex enough. We used to be assured that computers were functioning at full capacity. Then along came Microsoft cripple-ware, and all of a sudden computers were nothing but gaming consoles with WebTV functionality grafted on. We had to wait until a free Unix to run on our home machines before we could actually COMPUTE again. For the people to whom compiling your own kernel is just too much to handle, then COMPUTERS are too much for you to handle - go get yourself a dandy little cell phone to surf the web and a swift little XBox to play games on. With my blessings.
Computers are powerful. I mean HOLY-SHIT-I-DIDN'T-KNOW-THAT-WAS-POSSIBLE powerful. They haven't come near potential yet. They will evolve in leaps and bounds. Now there is the box that I need to program in six languages, produce 3D ray-traced scenes, optimize work-related tasks with an ever-growing library of scripts that approach closer to artificial intelligence with each new patch, catalog all useful human knowledge, and generally use office apps and accounting apps and earn my living on. And there is the box for Joe Sixpack to play games on, or for gramma to email her bridge friends on. At some point, as our needs evolve further and further apart, doesn't it seem just plain illogical to call them both a computer? One of us needs a new name.
But of course, Joe Sixpack is in the majority, so he will have the floor. And Leet Egghead will use his wits to circumvent the system in the background like always and keep using his "complex" software to do "complex" things. What a pointless question. Hey, is rocket science too complex? Is organic chemistry too complex? Is brain surgury too complex?
Congratulations, I have skimmed the comments so far up to here and you are THEEEEE ONLY person to have spoken on the subject with anything resembling a brain, and that goes double in the case of TFA! So... for your sake, I hope you only duck into Slashdot when the need is pressing, as do I. Whatever's wrong with the rest of these people, I wouldn't want to catch it.
You do not have to be on drugs. You do not have to be insane. You have to be a hell of a lot smarter than average to pull it off, substance abuse and insanity is then optional. You do not have to be on drugs. You do not have to be insane. You have to be a hell of a lot smarter than average to pull it off, substance abuse and insanity is then optional. How many times do I have to fucking say it? Show me the definition where it says, "You must be THIS HIGH to write gonzo style."?
Jesus H. Christ! If a zombie ate your brain, it must have died of malnutrition! Look, gonzo-style journalism is nowhere near anything you're describing. Gonzo writing style has but one qualification over merely very good vanilla writing: BALLS. Big, sweaty, meaty, hairy, jocky balls. Think of Macho Man Randy Savage. Now think of him with an IQ of 250 and a couple PhD's under his belt, pounding a keyboard under the influence of nothing stiffer than an espresso to make sure he stays randy. That's gonzo. "If you have to ask, you'll never know!"
Here, not to be crude, is all that gonzo journalism requires: BALLS. Hairy, sweaty, jocky, clanging balls. You have 'em or you don't. PJ O'Rourke before his liver got it's own writing career, Harlan Ellison before he became an Old Maid fussing over his mush and antiques, Gore Vidal (hollwed be his name) right now. A handbasket of others are kicking around here and there...
Nice description of me, Sonny, but you forgot, "impeccible taste, balls of steel, and able to eat sawdust and shit two-by-fours at will".
And the bonus-round jackpot answer iiiisss: "Not behind your desk, Mr. Dahlen!" But rest assured, the counter-culture press is thriving like a pot-garden in South Central. You just go back to ignoring it and we'll do fine! And I'd be careful bandying Hunter S.'s name about with such wanton ignorance. Hunter may be miles above you on a cloud in Heaven, but the man always had damn good aim.
Whoops, sorry. Forgot to zip up...
We're just going to have to wait a couple of generations and see if the gene pool ups it's standards, aren't we?
I mean, you were born for free. Did your parents give you the bill for raising you? You live in a free country. Where's your payment to the revolutionaries who fought and died so you could have it? Don't tell me your tax dollars are there to compensate patriots for their deaths - I think that if that was all they were fighting for, they would have said "Forget it!" Somebody, somewhere (I hope!) loves you for free. Public libraries are free. No, the piddling taxes that some people pay don't count; you can pay zero taxes and still use the library anyway. Solar power is free. Air is free. Rain is free. I plant seeds in my yard and a garden grows for free. And then there's all the free Internet you surf, plus that you can post your trolls for free.
This "technology" stuff must still be new to everybody, but the idea behind technological progress is to keep giving humanity more and more benefits at less and less cost. To achieve the pinacle of that goal, we will someday eventually abolish the need for money at all. Part of that progress is open source software, all free. More important than that is open technology. We aren't there just yet (it will help when we get solar power to be more efficient than 6%), but we've come a long way from stone knives and bear skins, too.
When a scientist discovers something, they share their knowledge freely and it is passed down to future generations forever. For free. The same for any art - did Leonardo da Vinci include terms of use in his notebooks? Did Beethoven write a DRM program into the beginning of his symphonies? Did Moses copyright the first five books of the Bible? Did Michaelangelo watermark the Sistine Chappel? Did Charles Babbage, the first hacker, patent any of his technology? True, these craftspeople were, in some cases, paid a small sum for their services at the time. But when they died, the beauty and intelligence of their work didn't go away.
"No Free Lunch" - oh, how the greedy trolls of the world who love nothing but gold in their pocket wish it were so, with all their tin-plated hearts! Nevertheless, the people are sharing for free, and they're having a blast doing it. Even if they weren't, it would be worth it just to piss off people like you.
My own mother-in-law tops that. She calls us up and says she found some new software to buy for us. "But we use Linux!", we tell her. She cannot bring herself to speak such a foreign word. We explain that the software won't work on Linux, and anyway we have tons of better stuff for free. She buys it and sends it anyway. Since DRM paranoia has stopped all retailers from ever refunding cash for software again, we call her up and say, "Gee, thanks, it sold for 50 cents at the yard sale." A few months pass, and we have to do it ALL OVER AGAIN. FOR SIX YEARS NOW! I ask her if she can please buy some blank CDs while she's there so I could at least burn new distros that I download. "Blank CDs? Without any software? Why would you want those?"
With all those fans out there tossing Ubuntu CDs out to everybody, I wonder how many Ubuntu disk recipients take the CD home, insert it, wait patiently for the Windows auto-install dialog to start, give up after five minutes, throw the CD away, and go the rest of their lives saying that Linux doesn't work...
Well, now that he's gone, I guess things will never be the same for you. You might as well give up computers forever. You can donate your old machine to users of MacIntosh, Unix, and Amiga, so they can pick up where they left off before BG ever heard of computers.
Because maybe, just MAYBE, at least one or two of these naive suckers might finally stumble upon a CLUE!!! But this is a nice start. Hats off, Microsoft, for the new ammunition.
If only we could get Microsoft to patent stupidity. I would even help fund the effort and it's enforcement by siccing their lawyers on any luser who exhibited stupidity without the proper license agreement with Microsoft.
Now begins the standard disclaimer meant for the general public: "Buy a fish, name it life, so you'll have one!" and I might add to the standard disclaimer, "For GODS SAKE, find SOMETHING else to do with your time!"
"The only people who do not accept this idea are those who have vested interests in it not happening.Usually these people do not go public with the opinion, because One Laptop Per Child is a non-profit organization with a purely charitable and non-profit purpose. Heads of State know that their most valuable natural resource is their children. Scaling education as we know it will take too long and be too expensive. This is a very economic solution, one that engages the children in the betterment of their own education."
-Nicholas Negroponte, in recent interview on his $100. laptop project
Couldn't have said it better myself. It's a full on war between the people who want a better tomorrow for the world, and the Nazis who want the human race to be forever enslaved to a few Sadistic millionaires. And sweetheart, when that revolution comes to a head, bet your fuckin' ass I'll be out there fighting for the right side.
Hey, fuck you people. I don't knwo what the fuck happened to /., but I'm going to AOL where I can get some INTELLIGENT conversation for a change.
Duh. The point was to spew more FUD on Free Software. It is, after all, Slashdot.
Let's see a story that DOESN'T suck Bill Gates' dick get posted on Slashdot for a change!