Wow. Just...wow. I can't believe your posts continue to get modded insightful.
To put it gently, people like you are pretty much the cancer that currently infests the technology world. Fortunately, you didn't discover computers until AOL started running them, or the computer as we know it would never have even made it to the desktop; and when freedom overcomes tyrany and M$ goes away, you'll quit using computers again and go on to webphones or whatever the market commands you to do with your empty life roaming the aisles of the malls.
Here, wanna change that? JUST ONCE IN YOUR LIFE THINK A THOUGHT ALL BY YOURSELF INSTEAD OF SUCKING UP WHATEVER PROPAGANDA GARBAGE THE MEDIA PUT THERE IN THE VACCUUM BETWEEN YOUR EARS AND SPEWING THE PARTY LINE. Of course, Hell would not only freeze over, but go superconductive before you'd venture into *that* little bit of uncharted territory, wouldn't it?
Slashdot reaction: "I take it back! He's not just a Saint, he's an ANGEL SENT DOWN FROM HEAVEN!!! All I want to know is where's the line so I can get in it to kneal and KISS BILLY'S HOLY ASS!!!!!"
MIT undertakes to put a Linux computer in the hands of every disadvantaged child in the entire world.
Slashdot reaction: "WHA-A-AT!!! THAT'S AN OUTRAGE! THAT'S AN ABOMINATION! HOW DARE THEY! flameflameflameflame....."
Weren't we just over there yesterday dissing MIT's $100 laptop initiative to put free computers in the hands of every disadvantaged schoolchild on Earth as evil? But all of a sudden Bill Gates is a human-fucking-itarian for doing 10000000000000000000000000's times less?
I'd rank him right behind Saddam Hussein as a humanitarian. And hope he rots in hell. If MIT gets condemned for doing the same thing on a broader scale, Bill Gates should be condemned in the same side of the scale.
Didn't we just go through a thread where the giving away of computers is akin to making problems like starvation, homelessness, and lack of medical care for the underpriveledged? And is grounds for suspicion of everything from civil espionage to undermining democracy to push a Communist agenda? Yet Bill Gates is a FUCKING HUMANITARIAN because he plugs two Winduhs boxen into an inner city ghetto's schoolhouse in order to brainwash another generation of userslaves into the One Microsoft Way?
No, that's what the USB is for, temporary file storage. Write it all at once and store it there.
why bother having the windows partition at all?
Heh, heh, heh. Somebody else said it, not me.
I'm pretty certain that there's no adware/malware that gains root access and then mount partitions.
You're right, but what did we learn in class about "foolproof" security? Next thing you know, you'll have malware pop-up boxes: "We've detected that your computer's running: enter root password in this box to get it to come back." You think they wouldn't try?
No kidding. I never heard of these myths before, either, and I clearly remember the incident. Are they still myths if only the article's author has ever heard them? And possibly made up to have something to jabber about on MNSBC in between ad columns badly arranged with buggy CSS?
Do all your web business with a live CD. You can physically REMOVE the hard drive to ensure that it won't get infected with anything (all you have to do is unplug the IDE cable). Stick anything you want to download/save on a USB drive - you can even format it in FAT/etc. to keep it in Window's file system. Done with the web and need the hard drive, disconnect the ethernet cable (or whatever you use), virus-scan the USB storage, reconnect the hard drive, boot back to Windows. If any malware knows it's way around this method, I haven't met it yet!
We'll do that after we nuke Bill Gates the next time he's standing in front of two computers he's given to an inner-city school with people taking pictures of him and handing him awards.
I would choose water filters over a laptop any day.
Bullshit. Billy Gates sticks his big Windows dick up your ass and all of a sudden a free computer's the most wonderful thing in the world. Or do you retract your fawning praise you made over Microsoft's charitable donations all those times in the past?
Mind you, Bill Gates plugs three Winduhs boxes into an inner city school to brainwash the next generation of userslaves into the One Microsoft Way, and the concept of food in bellies simply ceases to exist. Provide free operating systems to every child in the world on the cheapest possible hardware you can scrounge, and everybody looks for the evil ulterior motive. All of a sudden, you'd think starvation was CAUSED by giving computers away. Wait, tell me, is it responsible for AIDS and cancer, too?
I vow as God is my witness, I'm going to mirror this whole discussion on my hard drive. As long as I live, I'm posting excerpts from it every single time Slashdot posts another kiss-Billy's-ass charity story. Thanks for contributing!
I'm a bit cynical about this kind of "generosity".
Funny, you didn't sound this cynical the last time Bill Gates tossed five computers into a community center. No, then it was nothing but praise Holy Saint Bill for his generosity. But it's MIT instead of Gates and Linux instead of Windows, so now it's a terrorist plot. Do you even OWN a mirror?
when the food, running water, electricity and semi-functional government divide is a far more serious threat to life, liberty, property and the future in these countries.
Oooooh, yes, very good point. I just have one question. Where did the problems of food, running water, electricy, and semi-functional government go the last time Bill Gates hooked some inner-city kids up to some Windows boxes? Because every time he does that, the "HUZZAH! HUZZAH!" never ends. Suddenly, solving the world's computing problems becomes the most important thing to do in the world. But let it be MIT instead of Microsoft and Linux instead of Windows and all of a sudden you'd think it was akin to terrorism, the way people like you are reacting.
So, if I paint a Ferrari lime green and put a hand crank on it, nobody will steal it?
No, just install Windows on it. Then giving it away (even one of them, to somebody who was almost rich enough to afford one anyway), suddenly becomes a good deed to rival the lifetime accomplishments of Mother Teresa. But it's not Bill Gates doing it, and it's not running Windows, so all of a sudden it's a bad thing.
Funny, every time Bill Gates plugs two Windows boxes into a classroom, I guess all of a sudden all the food problems of the world go away. But only long enough for everybody to kiss Billy's ass about it. The rest of the year, giving computers away suddenly becomes the most heinous crime imaginable.
Pretend that instead of MIT doing it with Linux computers to help the entire world, Bill Gates is plugging eight Winduhs boxen into a ghetto school to brainwash yet another generation of userslaves into the One Microsoft Way (you know, those stories that appear on Slashdot all the time?). Your reaction is now:
( )throw a ticker-tape parade
( )canonize Bill Gates as a Saint
( )Bypass the Saint thing and replace the Pope with Bill, period.
( )Flame/ mod down anybody suggesting BG is anything less than Mother Teressa reborn, claim "they're just commie hippies who hate rich people."
With all the criticism it's drawing, what other system could it POSSIBLY run except Linux? Now if it was Bill Gates again plugging ten Windows boxes into a ghetto to brainwash another generation of userslaves into the Windows way, everybody in here would be throwing ticker-tape parades about it.
Slashdot reaction: "I take it back! He's not just a Saint, he's an ANGEL SENT DOWN FROM HEAVEN!!! All I want to know is where's the line so I can get in it to kneal and KISS BILLY'S HOLY ASS!!!!!"
MIT undertakes to put a Linux computer in the hands of every disadvantaged child in the entire world.
Slashdot reaction: "WHA-A-AT!!! THAT'S AN OUTRAGE! THAT'S AN ABOMINATION! HOW DARE THEY! flameflameflameflame....."
Mkay. I see this type of troll everytime these stories come up.
AMEN TO THAT!!! I clicked on this discussion thinking "Let's see who's flaming about this project now." Second thread: I wasn't disappointed.
I'm sure all the people complaining about the $100 laptop project have really consciencious grounds to object, since they themselves have traveled abroad devoting their lives to help the needy, have volunteered all their lives with Greenpeace, and have done so much to help the world. I have no doubt that they are doing without cars, stereos, computers, or any other luxuries in order to donate every spare penny to the various charities around the world. Otherwise, they'd have no moral grounds for condemning this project.
I'm equally certain that not one of these objectors owns any Microsoft stock. No WAY would self-interest be a motivating factor in attacking a project aimed at putting a Linux machine in the hands of every under-priveledged child in the world.
So. Do you people actually see things in your heads? Can you picture a face/scene/object/symbol - and really look at it?
Absolutely. Richard Feynmann once covered this in one of his biographies. He described the difficulty he had in tracking seconds without looking at a clock while he was carrying on a conversation. An acquaintence demonstrated that he had no such problem. On comparing notes, he discovered that his acquaintence counted by visualizing a tape rolling in his mind with the numbers written on them, where Feynmann had to have his mental voice "saying" the numbers to him in his mind. So when he was talking, the "speech" part in his brain got distracted...
Yes, I can literally picture things in my head like I had a video cassette player in there! I often remember events like they were little movies. I even figure math problems by picturing a matrix in my mind! Golden ratios, fibonacci sequences, the number pi, cube roots...they all have pictures associated with them for me. I guess that's why I have an art blog. Fractals come so natural to me, it's disgusting.
This goes right back to how I navigate in the world, as well. *Street* names are another sticky spot with me, yet I'm one of those people who never gets lost. I can't tell you the name of the street, but I can describe every landmark around there...so once I've been somewhere, I find my way back by "replaying" the mental video of how I got there the first time.
But the name thing requires conscious effort and you probably aren't bothering.
You sound like exactly one of those people who would get outrageously offended about me. If what you say were at all true, why can I remember Jill's favorite color, what kind of pets she likes (judging by the cat calandar on the wall of her cubicle), remember to ask about her sick aunt in New Zealand which she mentioned once last week, what she had on her enchilada at lunch (she likes guacamole and salsa, but no sour cream), and so on ad infinitum? I mean even trivia I could care less about, even about people I actively don't like! But I've met 1,000,000 Jills before, and that name's gonna get lost in the file with the other Jills, Janes, Jans, and Joans.
OK, which one of you traitors tipped off the politicians that these things called computers exist? Politicians should be treated like mushrooms: keep them in the dark and feed them bull.
I've have one that's very specific, but only been a minor nuisance. I blow people's names. Especially in a work environment, where I'm constantly meeting new people. A new person will have to remind me of their name anywhere from six to twelve times before it sinks in. Some people I know for awhile, then start calling them by the wrong name for a while. Then I stop that and get back to calling them by their right name again. Most people are understanding (I have to explain myself), but some get quite offended.
Mind you, it's the only memory defect I have. I can remember a face after meeting a person once and not seeing them for years. In conversation with a co-worker on a day-to-day basis, I can tell them what we talked about yesterday, what they were wearing last week, everything they've told me about themselves down to the most minute detail. Just not their name! But in most cases, I finally get them straight after a few months.
I was just wondering, with all the psych buffs in here...(PS it works this way online, too. I'm more likely to remember posters by their sig, or even just by their writing style, or on other forums by their icons...I'll even place people by their ID-number before their names!)
#1 No, I'm just as angry at Google. This is shocking, because it's the first time Google has ever pissed me off. I really had high hopes for them, and they are dashed just that little bit.
#2 MSN does the same thing, they get hated just as much, plus 50 times more penalty for being the INVENTORS OF EVIL ITSELF(TM). Get it right: If MS and Linux were to change places, Linux would have to go on being evil for 20 years and MS go on being a beacon of freedom and hackishness for 20 years before the scales would even be balanced and the two companies would be EQUAL. Case in point: IBM, who has just now begun winning the cautious respect of the FOSS community after ten years of trying to make amends.
That's it, I'm fed up. Is there some way we can hack past Chinese firewalls and FORCE-FEED free information in there? If there isn't a corporation in the world with the balls to stand up to the little Fascists, it's up to us people. And for once, we can stick governments in their rightly irrelevant place to do it.
*pant* *pant* OK, I'm better, now. Had a flashback to my punk-rocker Anarchist cookbook days, there. Still I'll be damned if the rest of us should stand by with our thumbs plugged and do nothing.
Don't be ridiculous... These things should *not* be illegal...I shouldn't be required to make sure it boots Windows. If I build a machine that lacks support for booting anything but linux, I doubt Slashdotters would be saying it should be illegal.
Completely different issue. Nobody's asking anybody to support doodly. Just stamp out your motherboards, sell them to me for something less than my first-born child, and stay out of the way and let me do with them what I want. If you're trying to chase me with lawyers and prosecute me because I wanted to run my own OS, or you rig booby-traps into the hardware so that it delberately blows up without running your software, then you are "forcing me to only use a particular OS on your computer", as the quote put it.
If I build a machine that lacks support for booting anything but linux,
Why DO people who hate Linux so much that EVERYTHING becomes a Linux-vs-everything debate even COME to Slashdot? God, go to the beach and complain about the sand!
Slashdot Mirror
To put it gently, people like you are pretty much the cancer that currently infests the technology world. Fortunately, you didn't discover computers until AOL started running them, or the computer as we know it would never have even made it to the desktop; and when freedom overcomes tyrany and M$ goes away, you'll quit using computers again and go on to webphones or whatever the market commands you to do with your empty life roaming the aisles of the malls.
Here, wanna change that? JUST ONCE IN YOUR LIFE THINK A THOUGHT ALL BY YOURSELF INSTEAD OF SUCKING UP WHATEVER PROPAGANDA GARBAGE THE MEDIA PUT THERE IN THE VACCUUM BETWEEN YOUR EARS AND SPEWING THE PARTY LINE. Of course, Hell would not only freeze over, but go superconductive before you'd venture into *that* little bit of uncharted territory, wouldn't it?
Slashdot reaction: "God bless Bill Gates! He is truly a philanthropist for our time!"
Microsoft donates eight computers to Botswana
Slashdot reaction: "I'm going to petition the Pope to canonize Bill Gates as a Saint!!"
Microsoft donates ten computers to citizens of Philadelphia
Slashdot reaction: "I take it back! He's not just a Saint, he's an ANGEL SENT DOWN FROM HEAVEN!!! All I want to know is where's the line so I can get in it to kneal and KISS BILLY'S HOLY ASS!!!!!"
MIT undertakes to put a Linux computer in the hands of every disadvantaged child in the entire world.
Slashdot reaction: "WHA-A-AT!!! THAT'S AN OUTRAGE! THAT'S AN ABOMINATION! HOW DARE THEY! flameflameflameflame....."
I'd rank him right behind Saddam Hussein as a humanitarian. And hope he rots in hell. If MIT gets condemned for doing the same thing on a broader scale, Bill Gates should be condemned in the same side of the scale.
Go to fucking hell!
No, that's what the USB is for, temporary file storage. Write it all at once and store it there.
why bother having the windows partition at all?
Heh, heh, heh. Somebody else said it, not me.
I'm pretty certain that there's no adware/malware that gains root access and then mount partitions.
You're right, but what did we learn in class about "foolproof" security? Next thing you know, you'll have malware pop-up boxes: "We've detected that your computer's running: enter root password in this box to get it to come back." You think they wouldn't try?
No kidding. I never heard of these myths before, either, and I clearly remember the incident. Are they still myths if only the article's author has ever heard them? And possibly made up to have something to jabber about on MNSBC in between ad columns badly arranged with buggy CSS?
Do all your web business with a live CD. You can physically REMOVE the hard drive to ensure that it won't get infected with anything (all you have to do is unplug the IDE cable). Stick anything you want to download/save on a USB drive - you can even format it in FAT/etc. to keep it in Window's file system. Done with the web and need the hard drive, disconnect the ethernet cable (or whatever you use), virus-scan the USB storage, reconnect the hard drive, boot back to Windows. If any malware knows it's way around this method, I haven't met it yet!
We'll do that after we nuke Bill Gates the next time he's standing in front of two computers he's given to an inner-city school with people taking pictures of him and handing him awards.
Bullshit. Billy Gates sticks his big Windows dick up your ass and all of a sudden a free computer's the most wonderful thing in the world. Or do you retract your fawning praise you made over Microsoft's charitable donations all those times in the past?
Mind you, Bill Gates plugs three Winduhs boxes into an inner city school to brainwash the next generation of userslaves into the One Microsoft Way, and the concept of food in bellies simply ceases to exist. Provide free operating systems to every child in the world on the cheapest possible hardware you can scrounge, and everybody looks for the evil ulterior motive. All of a sudden, you'd think starvation was CAUSED by giving computers away. Wait, tell me, is it responsible for AIDS and cancer, too?
I vow as God is my witness, I'm going to mirror this whole discussion on my hard drive. As long as I live, I'm posting excerpts from it every single time Slashdot posts another kiss-Billy's-ass charity story. Thanks for contributing!
Funny, you didn't sound this cynical the last time Bill Gates tossed five computers into a community center. No, then it was nothing but praise Holy Saint Bill for his generosity. But it's MIT instead of Gates and Linux instead of Windows, so now it's a terrorist plot. Do you even OWN a mirror?
Oooooh, yes, very good point. I just have one question. Where did the problems of food, running water, electricy, and semi-functional government go the last time Bill Gates hooked some inner-city kids up to some Windows boxes? Because every time he does that, the "HUZZAH! HUZZAH!" never ends. Suddenly, solving the world's computing problems becomes the most important thing to do in the world. But let it be MIT instead of Microsoft and Linux instead of Windows and all of a sudden you'd think it was akin to terrorism, the way people like you are reacting.
No, just install Windows on it. Then giving it away (even one of them, to somebody who was almost rich enough to afford one anyway), suddenly becomes a good deed to rival the lifetime accomplishments of Mother Teresa. But it's not Bill Gates doing it, and it's not running Windows, so all of a sudden it's a bad thing.
Funny, every time Bill Gates plugs two Windows boxes into a classroom, I guess all of a sudden all the food problems of the world go away. But only long enough for everybody to kiss Billy's ass about it. The rest of the year, giving computers away suddenly becomes the most heinous crime imaginable.
Pretend that instead of MIT doing it with Linux computers to help the entire world, Bill Gates is plugging eight Winduhs boxen into a ghetto school to brainwash yet another generation of userslaves into the One Microsoft Way (you know, those stories that appear on Slashdot all the time?). Your reaction is now:
( )throw a ticker-tape parade
( )canonize Bill Gates as a Saint
( )Bypass the Saint thing and replace the Pope with Bill, period.
( )Flame/ mod down anybody suggesting BG is anything less than Mother Teressa reborn, claim "they're just commie hippies who hate rich people."
With all the criticism it's drawing, what other system could it POSSIBLY run except Linux? Now if it was Bill Gates again plugging ten Windows boxes into a ghetto to brainwash another generation of userslaves into the Windows way, everybody in here would be throwing ticker-tape parades about it.
Slashdot reaction: "God bless Bill Gates! He is truly a philanthropist for our time!"
Microsoft donates eight computers to Botswana
Slashdot reaction: "I'm going to petition the Pope to canonize Bill Gates as a Saint!!"
Microsoft donates ten computers to citizens of Philadelphia
Slashdot reaction: "I take it back! He's not just a Saint, he's an ANGEL SENT DOWN FROM HEAVEN!!! All I want to know is where's the line so I can get in it to kneal and KISS BILLY'S HOLY ASS!!!!!"
MIT undertakes to put a Linux computer in the hands of every disadvantaged child in the entire world.
Slashdot reaction: "WHA-A-AT!!! THAT'S AN OUTRAGE! THAT'S AN ABOMINATION! HOW DARE THEY! flameflameflameflame....."
AMEN TO THAT!!! I clicked on this discussion thinking "Let's see who's flaming about this project now." Second thread: I wasn't disappointed.
I'm sure all the people complaining about the $100 laptop project have really consciencious grounds to object, since they themselves have traveled abroad devoting their lives to help the needy, have volunteered all their lives with Greenpeace, and have done so much to help the world. I have no doubt that they are doing without cars, stereos, computers, or any other luxuries in order to donate every spare penny to the various charities around the world. Otherwise, they'd have no moral grounds for condemning this project.
I'm equally certain that not one of these objectors owns any Microsoft stock. No WAY would self-interest be a motivating factor in attacking a project aimed at putting a Linux machine in the hands of every under-priveledged child in the world.
Absolutely. Richard Feynmann once covered this in one of his biographies. He described the difficulty he had in tracking seconds without looking at a clock while he was carrying on a conversation. An acquaintence demonstrated that he had no such problem. On comparing notes, he discovered that his acquaintence counted by visualizing a tape rolling in his mind with the numbers written on them, where Feynmann had to have his mental voice "saying" the numbers to him in his mind. So when he was talking, the "speech" part in his brain got distracted...
Yes, I can literally picture things in my head like I had a video cassette player in there! I often remember events like they were little movies. I even figure math problems by picturing a matrix in my mind! Golden ratios, fibonacci sequences, the number pi, cube roots...they all have pictures associated with them for me. I guess that's why I have an art blog. Fractals come so natural to me, it's disgusting.
This goes right back to how I navigate in the world, as well. *Street* names are another sticky spot with me, yet I'm one of those people who never gets lost. I can't tell you the name of the street, but I can describe every landmark around there...so once I've been somewhere, I find my way back by "replaying" the mental video of how I got there the first time.
You sound like exactly one of those people who would get outrageously offended about me. If what you say were at all true, why can I remember Jill's favorite color, what kind of pets she likes (judging by the cat calandar on the wall of her cubicle), remember to ask about her sick aunt in New Zealand which she mentioned once last week, what she had on her enchilada at lunch (she likes guacamole and salsa, but no sour cream), and so on ad infinitum? I mean even trivia I could care less about, even about people I actively don't like! But I've met 1,000,000 Jills before, and that name's gonna get lost in the file with the other Jills, Janes, Jans, and Joans.
OK, which one of you traitors tipped off the politicians that these things called computers exist? Politicians should be treated like mushrooms: keep them in the dark and feed them bull.
I've have one that's very specific, but only been a minor nuisance. I blow people's names. Especially in a work environment, where I'm constantly meeting new people. A new person will have to remind me of their name anywhere from six to twelve times before it sinks in. Some people I know for awhile, then start calling them by the wrong name for a while. Then I stop that and get back to calling them by their right name again. Most people are understanding (I have to explain myself), but some get quite offended.
Mind you, it's the only memory defect I have. I can remember a face after meeting a person once and not seeing them for years. In conversation with a co-worker on a day-to-day basis, I can tell them what we talked about yesterday, what they were wearing last week, everything they've told me about themselves down to the most minute detail. Just not their name! But in most cases, I finally get them straight after a few months.
I was just wondering, with all the psych buffs in here...(PS it works this way online, too. I'm more likely to remember posters by their sig, or even just by their writing style, or on other forums by their icons...I'll even place people by their ID-number before their names!)
#2 MSN does the same thing, they get hated just as much, plus 50 times more penalty for being the INVENTORS OF EVIL ITSELF(TM). Get it right: If MS and Linux were to change places, Linux would have to go on being evil for 20 years and MS go on being a beacon of freedom and hackishness for 20 years before the scales would even be balanced and the two companies would be EQUAL. Case in point: IBM, who has just now begun winning the cautious respect of the FOSS community after ten years of trying to make amends.
*pant* *pant* OK, I'm better, now. Had a flashback to my punk-rocker Anarchist cookbook days, there. Still I'll be damned if the rest of us should stand by with our thumbs plugged and do nothing.
HAAAAAAAAAAAAA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...
Don't be ridiculous... These things should *not* be illegal...I shouldn't be required to make sure it boots Windows. If I build a machine that lacks support for booting anything but linux, I doubt Slashdotters would be saying it should be illegal.
Completely different issue. Nobody's asking anybody to support doodly. Just stamp out your motherboards, sell them to me for something less than my first-born child, and stay out of the way and let me do with them what I want. If you're trying to chase me with lawyers and prosecute me because I wanted to run my own OS, or you rig booby-traps into the hardware so that it delberately blows up without running your software, then you are "forcing me to only use a particular OS on your computer", as the quote put it.
If I build a machine that lacks support for booting anything but linux,
Why DO people who hate Linux so much that EVERYTHING becomes a Linux-vs-everything debate even COME to Slashdot? God, go to the beach and complain about the sand!