There's only one thing for enlightened America left to do: round up all the people with facial warts, and burn them at the stake as witches to chase the evil hurricane spirits away.
Well, show me large patches of land that have no vulnerability to any natural disaster whatsoever. It would help if nature designated large areas disaster-free zones and posted signs: "Safe to build here."
As a resident of Iowa, I'll tell you not to underestimate the destructive power of tornados. They happen every year, unlike earthquakes and floods. A tornado may be hit-and-miss, but if it hits your IT center, it's getting scattered in pieces just like everything else.
"Industry standard" is an interesting way to pronounce "global monopolizing monomaniacal bully".
We were just talking about this a few posted storys back: http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/01/ 2047253&tid=109&tid=106
when I said that Microsoft didn't need to take an active role in cross-platform compatibility, if only it would just stop obstructing it, spoiling the whole computer experience even for people who don't use Microsoft. Watch, MS will go after this with it's characteristic Mafia-thug club. And this is just so the rest of the world can *deal* with it's file formats shoved in the public's face.
I metamoderate him over the head with a rancid carp
Actually, if Linus Torvalds says I'm publicly wanking, then that's probably what I'm doing. It's just kind of difficult not to break stroke when I'm looking at phrases like "rancid carp".
because they are being deliberately offensive. "Zen" is a religion, and a major, world-wide, respected one, which doubtless doesn't fancy having it's name attatched to such disgustingly materialist purpose. If you're having problems understanding why this is offensive, imagine if I patented a line of condoms and called them "Virgin Mary"'s. See?
On the other hand, it's not Microsoft's problem when it comes down to something a Linux desktop can or can't do.
You mistook my point. Linux can handle everything just fine. A media player that could handle Windows Media formats was already introduced to at least Linspire. Microsoft blocked them and said, "You can't release that." Linux is more than happy to partition the drive into sectors to allow for every system under the sun. Install Windows, and it arrogantly munches the master boot record as if it were the only operating system in the world. Linux files compact themselves to fit into the smallest possible physical space, saving more room on your hard drive. Windows is like having a sloppy roommate, it spreads out into as much space as it can and flings garbage everywhere. Linux can format and read removable media in every known format, including FAT32. Stick a floppy with ext2 files on it into Windows, and Windows has a fit.
And so on. What I was talking about, is that if only Microsoft were merely indifferent, it'd be easier to work with. But it's deliberately hostile every chance it gets, so programmers for other systems have to work ten times harder just to deal with all the problems that Microsoft causes when it doesn't have to.
Do you know that you're dealing with a lower quality of graphics online just because of Windows? I'd love to be able to use a lossless compression format like.png to display my graphics art on my blog, but if I do that, Windows browsers don't support.png files evenly (some do, some don't). So we all have to look at.jpg's, and have lots of swirly noise in the files when we save them. Thank you, Windows, for forcing me to use sub-standard quality just to be compatible with your trashy browsers!
And yes, I'd love some cheese with my wine. Do you have any red Leicester? Oh. How are you on Tilsit? Tish, tish. Four ounces of Caerphilly? Bel Paese? Red Windsor? Stilton? Ementhal? Gruyere?
It's the silliest thing I've read about non-IE browsers
Hey, I think I like your link better then the article's! My fave quote from it:
"not all open source users are necessarily creating malicious software"
But you're *da-a-rn* tootin' that 99.9999% of them are, I presume?
Their parole office will drop by periodically and check their PC.
What, "parental controls" options that will stop you from looking at even Janet Jackson Superbowl footage won't do any good here?
They have some sort of forensic software that does this.
Counting just the hits from the "Forensics" search category at http://distrowatch.com/ , there's Auditor Security Linux, Helix, Knoppix STD, and Penguin Sleuth Bootable CD; all of which are live CDs which an investigator could carry with them and the criminal would hence not be able to tamper with. Where's the Windows' live CD forensics disks?
I just love how It Is Ordained From On High that anything but Internet Exploder is an "alternative". When did that measure come up on the ballot? I must have missed that election.
The hurricane or the United States' response to it?
I can't make up my mind. First I hear about National Guardsmen given "shoot to kill" orders, Bush asking for a paltry 10 billion in aid (as opposed to 80 billion for Iraq this year - I guess a New Orleans citizen is worth 1/8th of an Iraqi citizen?), helicopters dropping sandbags instead of food, and Bush and congress were all on vacation when this went down. And now I come on Slashdot and read people saying, in effect, that because they didn't clear out of town when they were told, it's all their own damn fault?
Remember, 1 out of 3 New Orleans citizens live at or below poverty level. What can you do when you have no car? How can you hear a warning if you don't have a TV set or radio? How can you evacuate when you're told to go to a convention center and wait for a bus that never shows up?
The storm was devestating. The response and aftermath are sickening.
Finally, a sane note in the Microsoft/Linux conflict: That it is in Microsoft's best interest to co-operate with other systems. For instance, they could allow Windows Media Player format files to play on a Linux system, so we can watch CNN.com's film clips like everybody else. Instead of the boondoggle that is Windows security, they could simply admit that running Linux and Windows on the same machine cleans up much of Window's act for them. Free software ported to Windows enhances the value of Windows, after all, like with FreeCD.org's product. I remember when I got Microsoft's visual C++ compiler for Windows (way back in '98, it was version 6.0), it came with, of all things, EMACS!
For once, Microsoft marketing could focus on co-operation instead of gratuitious incompatibility. Windows would have so much to gain that way, and consumers would have an easier time getting the two systems to co-operate on the same machine, which is what a lot of people want, anyway.
Hey, howza bout a live Windows CD I could run on my Linux machine without having to install Windows? All they'd have to do is copy-protect the CD, ensuring that each purchased Windows license equated to Windows running on only one machine at any time. I'm tired of the burden of co-operation being on Linux all the time!
Why should you be allowed to go around staring negative rumours about your business competitors?
As opposed to Microsoft, who can do no-goddam-wrong. Microsoft would *never* say bad things about their competitors, would they? Because then you'd see them getting persecuted the same way this blogger is. Yes, very just indeed.
Use nothing but OS X for a year and everything else will seem awkward. Same goes for any other OS.
Oh, sure. You just waltz in here and state this simple logic and you don't get drowned in the dung-shower the howler monkeys bury me in. You know how many years I've been preaching this? Bah!
Let me, as usual, be the original one and post against the tide. While everyone is having such fun putting on the clown, or distro-flaming *dodging lava stream* I'll seriously comment:
Even though I am a Linux Zealot (TM), I do honestly admit that Linux is not for everyone in one respect: if all you do with a computer is play games and websurf - that is, if the machine is nothing to you but an entertainment device, you might as well stick with Windows. Do the absolute bare minimum to keep it going, keep the disk handy, and get good at typing "format c:\" at the DOS prompt and re-installing it, you'll be able to handle most of the problems that you have. *ducking fireball*
If, however, your computer usage involves any practicality - that is, if you do work on a computer, not only is Linux (or, in some cases, MacIntosh for graphics/multimedia work) a better choice, it simply makes everything else a laughable toy by comparison. *side-stepping flame-plume*
We now return you to the distro-flamewar already in progress *running from napalm shower*.
A penguin shouldn't have been the Linux mascot. That should have been a road-runner. With Bill Gates as Wile E. Coyote, hatching one bone-head scheme after another tryng to catch it...
Seriously, while we're speculating wildly, I have an even wetter dream: Google is famously Linux-based, see, so wouldn't it be great if we just had two internets to go with our two PC-based OS systems? Keep the Windows comps off the Google-net, and the Linux geeks won't venture into AOL-land!
Whoops, what about Macs and Suns and BeOS's? Nahh-h-h, it'd never work!
"if you don't like it, fork it" may sound good to a filthy hippy, but in reality, having 29831 implementations of everything, with 289 different licences, is really just hurting the community.
I'm about fed up with this "community" crap. Fuck it, I AM NOT A MEMBER OF ANYBODY'S COMMUNITY!!! I'm not paying dues to join an association, I do not want a bar code engraved on my forehead, I don't want a chip planted in my arm, I don't want to join a secret club or learn a fratboy handshake or dress up in a silly costume and take a vow. I want to use a free operating system, and I want all 29,831 implementaions to choose from every time I go looking for a new one.
Yes, everything you say is true. But you repeat the Slashdot (I only see it *here*) mistake of the gratuitious assumption that just because I use Linux, that means I want everybody else to use Linux, too, and am willing to sacrifice everything to realize that end goal. Nope, in a world with 6.5 billion individuals, 20 billion different species of beetle, 50 thousand different kinds of cheese, and 10 billion sperm per shot, we are now blessed with 29,831 different free operating systems, and I BY GOD LOVE EVERY ONE OF THEM! What do you know about that?
Fade out, fade in. Today, we have the Free (as in freedom *and* beer) Operating System that is part GNU, part Linux, and even part BSD (I stumble upon the occasional BSD program running on my Linux system ), and part everything else. In a commercial world, there'd be trademarks and copyrights and logos and every other byte of binary on your disk would be the stupid trademark/OS EULA/NDA warning of legal repercussions, etc. Windows users, get *any* hex editor, open *any* Windows program, you'll see "Microsoft" written in the ASCII somewhere: this is what I'm talking about. But this is Linux. Nobody really owns it all per se, because we basement hackers and renegade computer users and indignant MIT lab rats wrote it all ourselves, and don't really care about becoming millionaires or dominating the world about it, so long as we have our free system.
Now, let's pull our heads into the Physical, Real World for a minute and quit worrying about hypothetically this and pedantic definition that: What we're talking about is what most of the world calls "Linux". So, when you go shopping for Linux distros, you don't type "free software distros" in Google, and when you need help installing Linux, you don't go into a #GNU chat and say, "I need help installing my free software". You call it Linux, Slashdot calls it Linux, we all found this discussion because we recognized the name of Linux.
Now, the copyright infringement you're hearing about has, in fact, already started. Porn sites are already trying to snag hits using the word "Linux". No, I'm not kidding, and I'm not about to post links to them and let them enjoy a lot of hits. Type "Linux" into search engines with the most unexpected keywords that would only imply you were looking for guides, HOWTOs, and such, and you'll get the occasional Easter Egg. This demonstrates the shaky legal ground that Linux is on, and why we're doing this.
PS, when you hear somebody blowing off their big bazoo about "Linux", "Open Source", "Free Software", or "GNU", take into account that Stallman, Torvalds, and their tribal bard, Eric S. Raymond, are 99% less likely to be full of hooey than anybody else.
There has been more air blowing around about this issue than is contained in a Florida hurricane, so I thought I'd provide a *sane* explanation:
Once upon a time, somebody named Richard Stallman got pissed off because he needed to see the source code to a program so he could fix it, and the code author told him he was restricted by an NDA. http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/ch01.html
He was so miffed at this that he went off and founded GNU (Gnu's Not Unix), meant to be a free version of Unix. http://www.gnu.org/
"dedicated to eliminating restrictions on copying, redistribution, understanding, and modification of computer programs." But there was (and still is) one problem with the GNU operating system...it didn't have the kernel (the part of the OS that talks to the hardware at the lowest level), which project was known as the HURD http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd.html
which is STILL "not ready for production use, as there are still many bugs and missing features."
Enter Linus Torvalds, who, unaware of the GNU project, undertook to write his *own* kernel upon which he would then put an operating system that was to be, you guessed it, a free version of Unix.
Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman got adjascent seats on an airplane with their luggage mixed up or something; however they met, they met, and with Torvalds' kernel and Stallman's operating system it was indeed the birth of the blues.
Fade out, fade in. Today, we have the Free (as in freedom *and* beer) Operating System that is part GNU, part Linux, and even part BSD (I stumble upon the occasional BSD program running on my Linux system ), and part everything else. In a commercial world, there'd be trademarks and copyrights and logos and every other byte of binary on your disk would be the stupid trademark/OS EULA/NDA warning of legal repercussions, etc. Windows users, get *any* hex editor, open *any* Windows program, you'll see "Microsoft" written in the ASCII somewhere: this is what I'm talking about. But this is Linux. Nobody really owns it all per se, because we basement hackers and renegade computer users and indignant MIT lab rats wrote it all ourselves, and don't really care about becoming millionaires or dominating the world about it, so long as we have our free system.
Learn how to hack in two easy steps:
1. Read.
2. Repeat #1.
But, considering that the word "read" is surpassing "fuck" as the ultimate dirty-shock-word in the US, I think we dwellers of cyberspace are secure in our niche for just a couple more years.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe his aides handed Bush a hurricane warning, but it was bundled together with a terrorist warning, so he didn't read it.
How ironic, when every fundamentalist christian knows that the hurricane was God's punishment against us for harboring gays http://www.planetout.com/news/article.html?2005/08 /31/2 .
There's only one thing for enlightened America left to do: round up all the people with facial warts, and burn them at the stake as witches to chase the evil hurricane spirits away.
As a resident of Iowa, I'll tell you not to underestimate the destructive power of tornados. They happen every year, unlike earthquakes and floods. A tornado may be hit-and-miss, but if it hits your IT center, it's getting scattered in pieces just like everything else.
"Industry standard" is an interesting way to pronounce "global monopolizing monomaniacal bully".
We were just talking about this a few posted storys back: http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/01/ 2047253&tid=109&tid=106
when I said that Microsoft didn't need to take an active role in cross-platform compatibility, if only it would just stop obstructing it, spoiling the whole computer experience even for people who don't use Microsoft. Watch, MS will go after this with it's characteristic Mafia-thug club. And this is just so the rest of the world can *deal* with it's file formats shoved in the public's face.
Actually, if Linus Torvalds says I'm publicly wanking, then that's probably what I'm doing. It's just kind of difficult not to break stroke when I'm looking at phrases like "rancid carp".
because they are being deliberately offensive. "Zen" is a religion, and a major, world-wide, respected one, which doubtless doesn't fancy having it's name attatched to such disgustingly materialist purpose. If you're having problems understanding why this is offensive, imagine if I patented a line of condoms and called them "Virgin Mary"'s. See?
You mistook my point. Linux can handle everything just fine. A media player that could handle Windows Media formats was already introduced to at least Linspire. Microsoft blocked them and said, "You can't release that." Linux is more than happy to partition the drive into sectors to allow for every system under the sun. Install Windows, and it arrogantly munches the master boot record as if it were the only operating system in the world. Linux files compact themselves to fit into the smallest possible physical space, saving more room on your hard drive. Windows is like having a sloppy roommate, it spreads out into as much space as it can and flings garbage everywhere. Linux can format and read removable media in every known format, including FAT32. Stick a floppy with ext2 files on it into Windows, and Windows has a fit.
And so on. What I was talking about, is that if only Microsoft were merely indifferent, it'd be easier to work with. But it's deliberately hostile every chance it gets, so programmers for other systems have to work ten times harder just to deal with all the problems that Microsoft causes when it doesn't have to.
Do you know that you're dealing with a lower quality of graphics online just because of Windows? I'd love to be able to use a lossless compression format like .png to display my graphics art on my blog, but if I do that, Windows browsers don't support .png files evenly (some do, some don't). So we all have to look at .jpg's, and have lots of swirly noise in the files when we save them. Thank you, Windows, for forcing me to use sub-standard quality just to be compatible with your trashy browsers!
And yes, I'd love some cheese with my wine. Do you have any red Leicester? Oh. How are you on Tilsit? Tish, tish. Four ounces of Caerphilly? Bel Paese? Red Windsor? Stilton? Ementhal? Gruyere?
Hey, I think I like your link better then the article's! My fave quote from it:
"not all open source users are necessarily creating malicious software"
But you're *da-a-rn* tootin' that 99.9999% of them are, I presume?
What, "parental controls" options that will stop you from looking at even Janet Jackson Superbowl footage won't do any good here?
They have some sort of forensic software that does this.
Counting just the hits from the "Forensics" search category at http://distrowatch.com/ , there's Auditor Security Linux, Helix, Knoppix STD, and Penguin Sleuth Bootable CD; all of which are live CDs which an investigator could carry with them and the criminal would hence not be able to tamper with. Where's the Windows' live CD forensics disks?
I just love how It Is Ordained From On High that anything but Internet Exploder is an "alternative". When did that measure come up on the ballot? I must have missed that election.
I can't make up my mind. First I hear about National Guardsmen given "shoot to kill" orders, Bush asking for a paltry 10 billion in aid (as opposed to 80 billion for Iraq this year - I guess a New Orleans citizen is worth 1/8th of an Iraqi citizen?), helicopters dropping sandbags instead of food, and Bush and congress were all on vacation when this went down. And now I come on Slashdot and read people saying, in effect, that because they didn't clear out of town when they were told, it's all their own damn fault?
Remember, 1 out of 3 New Orleans citizens live at or below poverty level. What can you do when you have no car? How can you hear a warning if you don't have a TV set or radio? How can you evacuate when you're told to go to a convention center and wait for a bus that never shows up?
The storm was devestating. The response and aftermath are sickening.
For once, Microsoft marketing could focus on co-operation instead of gratuitious incompatibility. Windows would have so much to gain that way, and consumers would have an easier time getting the two systems to co-operate on the same machine, which is what a lot of people want, anyway.
Hey, howza bout a live Windows CD I could run on my Linux machine without having to install Windows? All they'd have to do is copy-protect the CD, ensuring that each purchased Windows license equated to Windows running on only one machine at any time. I'm tired of the burden of co-operation being on Linux all the time!
As opposed to Microsoft, who can do no-goddam-wrong. Microsoft would *never* say bad things about their competitors, would they? Because then you'd see them getting persecuted the same way this blogger is. Yes, very just indeed.
Now we see the violence inherent in the system! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, I'm being repressed!
What!?!? America had industry once? Tell us THAT story, grampa!
A scroll titled "ghikj llop de". Identify?[y]
It's a scroll of patent law! Read it?[y]
You are permanently confused!
Oh, sure. You just waltz in here and state this simple logic and you don't get drowned in the dung-shower the howler monkeys bury me in. You know how many years I've been preaching this? Bah!
Even though I am a Linux Zealot (TM), I do honestly admit that Linux is not for everyone in one respect: if all you do with a computer is play games and websurf - that is, if the machine is nothing to you but an entertainment device, you might as well stick with Windows. Do the absolute bare minimum to keep it going, keep the disk handy, and get good at typing "format c:\" at the DOS prompt and re-installing it, you'll be able to handle most of the problems that you have. *ducking fireball*
If, however, your computer usage involves any practicality - that is, if you do work on a computer, not only is Linux (or, in some cases, MacIntosh for graphics/multimedia work) a better choice, it simply makes everything else a laughable toy by comparison. *side-stepping flame-plume*
We now return you to the distro-flamewar already in progress *running from napalm shower*.
A penguin shouldn't have been the Linux mascot. That should have been a road-runner. With Bill Gates as Wile E. Coyote, hatching one bone-head scheme after another tryng to catch it...
Seriously, while we're speculating wildly, I have an even wetter dream: Google is famously Linux-based, see, so wouldn't it be great if we just had two internets to go with our two PC-based OS systems? Keep the Windows comps off the Google-net, and the Linux geeks won't venture into AOL-land!
Whoops, what about Macs and Suns and BeOS's? Nahh-h-h, it'd never work!
I'm about fed up with this "community" crap. Fuck it, I AM NOT A MEMBER OF ANYBODY'S COMMUNITY!!! I'm not paying dues to join an association, I do not want a bar code engraved on my forehead, I don't want a chip planted in my arm, I don't want to join a secret club or learn a fratboy handshake or dress up in a silly costume and take a vow. I want to use a free operating system, and I want all 29,831 implementaions to choose from every time I go looking for a new one.
Yes, everything you say is true. But you repeat the Slashdot (I only see it *here*) mistake of the gratuitious assumption that just because I use Linux, that means I want everybody else to use Linux, too, and am willing to sacrifice everything to realize that end goal. Nope, in a world with 6.5 billion individuals, 20 billion different species of beetle, 50 thousand different kinds of cheese, and 10 billion sperm per shot, we are now blessed with 29,831 different free operating systems, and I BY GOD LOVE EVERY ONE OF THEM! What do you know about that?
Fade out, fade in. Today, we have the Free (as in freedom *and* beer) Operating System that is part GNU, part Linux, and even part BSD (I stumble upon the occasional BSD program running on my Linux system ), and part everything else. In a commercial world, there'd be trademarks and copyrights and logos and every other byte of binary on your disk would be the stupid trademark/OS EULA/NDA warning of legal repercussions, etc. Windows users, get *any* hex editor, open *any* Windows program, you'll see "Microsoft" written in the ASCII somewhere: this is what I'm talking about. But this is Linux. Nobody really owns it all per se, because we basement hackers and renegade computer users and indignant MIT lab rats wrote it all ourselves, and don't really care about becoming millionaires or dominating the world about it, so long as we have our free system.
Now, let's pull our heads into the Physical, Real World for a minute and quit worrying about hypothetically this and pedantic definition that: What we're talking about is what most of the world calls "Linux". So, when you go shopping for Linux distros, you don't type "free software distros" in Google, and when you need help installing Linux, you don't go into a #GNU chat and say, "I need help installing my free software". You call it Linux, Slashdot calls it Linux, we all found this discussion because we recognized the name of Linux.
Now, the copyright infringement you're hearing about has, in fact, already started. Porn sites are already trying to snag hits using the word "Linux". No, I'm not kidding, and I'm not about to post links to them and let them enjoy a lot of hits. Type "Linux" into search engines with the most unexpected keywords that would only imply you were looking for guides, HOWTOs, and such, and you'll get the occasional Easter Egg. This demonstrates the shaky legal ground that Linux is on, and why we're doing this.
PS, when you hear somebody blowing off their big bazoo about "Linux", "Open Source", "Free Software", or "GNU", take into account that Stallman, Torvalds, and their tribal bard, Eric S. Raymond, are 99% less likely to be full of hooey than anybody else.
Once upon a time, somebody named Richard Stallman got pissed off because he needed to see the source code to a program so he could fix it, and the code author told him he was restricted by an NDA.
http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/ch01.html
He was so miffed at this that he went off and founded GNU (Gnu's Not Unix), meant to be a free version of Unix.
http://www.gnu.org/
"dedicated to eliminating restrictions on copying, redistribution, understanding, and modification of computer programs." But there was (and still is) one problem with the GNU operating system...it didn't have the kernel (the part of the OS that talks to the hardware at the lowest level), which project was known as the HURD
http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd.html
which is STILL "not ready for production use, as there are still many bugs and missing features."
Enter Linus Torvalds, who, unaware of the GNU project, undertook to write his *own* kernel upon which he would then put an operating system that was to be, you guessed it, a free version of Unix. Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman got adjascent seats on an airplane with their luggage mixed up or something; however they met, they met, and with Torvalds' kernel and Stallman's operating system it was indeed the birth of the blues.
Fade out, fade in. Today, we have the Free (as in freedom *and* beer) Operating System that is part GNU, part Linux, and even part BSD (I stumble upon the occasional BSD program running on my Linux system ), and part everything else. In a commercial world, there'd be trademarks and copyrights and logos and every other byte of binary on your disk would be the stupid trademark/OS EULA/NDA warning of legal repercussions, etc. Windows users, get *any* hex editor, open *any* Windows program, you'll see "Microsoft" written in the ASCII somewhere: this is what I'm talking about. But this is Linux. Nobody really owns it all per se, because we basement hackers and renegade computer users and indignant MIT lab rats wrote it all ourselves, and don't really care about becoming millionaires or dominating the world about it, so long as we have our free system.
Ha ha! You're right, I would have told him to use a flashlight and a mirror and a speculum to check his...
1. Read.
2. Repeat #1.
But, considering that the word "read" is surpassing "fuck" as the ultimate dirty-shock-word in the US, I think we dwellers of cyberspace are secure in our niche for just a couple more years.