My wife was in the military when we first started dating. Her commander pulled her aside one day and asked if she could get any games to run on his computer. The first thing she noticed about his computer was that the mouse was not connected. He had been using the keyboard exclusively. When she asked him about it, he replied that he didn't know what it was and it had never been hooked up. She hooked it up and gave a quick demonstration of it's use. He was very grateful. She did get sol.exe running for him. It's icon had been deleted, but the program was still there.
Open, closed, proprietary, whatever. Please, just tell me which container/codec pairing doesn't require me to illegally download software from the other side of the world just to watch video. Tell me which container/codec pairing can be freely distributed with the Linux distribution of my choice, anywhere in the world. Then, whomever actually reads your reply and has voting rights in the W3C, please vote in favor of that container/codec pairing.
The grandparent post stated:
Again, you have no right to comment on the issue if you possess no academic qualifications. The parent post stated:
This 'right to comment' you describe is rubbish. Anyone can comment on anything, and have the right to be heard. How seriously they are taken depends on how useful or informed their contribution is. That's the hard part, and this usefulness can be acheived either through academic work, or independant work as an amatour. Now, I agree with your basic definition of academic qualification.
Qualification in a field generally means no more than that the person being "qualified" (e.g. through a degree from an educational institute) in a certain field has shown to have undergone a systematic exposure to and a basic grounding in that previous knowledge. In addition a certain basic competence in the (established through consensus) techniques in that field has to be demonstrated. However, I disagree with the idea that amateurs be limited to reporting raw observations without being able to comment on theories that might explain the observation.Such a limitation implies that people are unable to learn from experience. It excludes them from that opportunity. As well, discovery often depends on looking beyond established technique. Science was founded on the work of amateurs. Automatically discounting, or ignoring, comments from amateurs only hurts science. Listen to their comments. Take the opportunity to point out mistakes. If fact, offer them the opportunity to learn from their mistakes. If you can't find a mistake, you've already given them the opportunity to teach you something new.
Which is to say, it's actually awkward for quite a lot of things. For instance: networking.
This is true. Networking is awkward in regards to/etc/init.d because networking, and how it's used, has changed a lot over the decades./etc/init.d/ was designed to take the system from power-up to login, and from logout to power-down. It was never intended to handle things in-between. Starting the network as part of this process was important if login was dependent on the network being available (For example, NIS). On a system where the login credentials are kept, or cached, locally, networking is not needed to get the system into a state where login is possible. If networking is only required on the whim of the user, it should not be in/etc/init.d.
Now if you are running a server, you probably do want networking to start and stop in/etc/init.d/. On a server, networking is required for anything it's serving. And those services are started in/etc/init.d/ because it is a convenient place to put automation on a system that rarely, if ever, has a local login. As well, servers generally don't need to deal with physically moving between networks.
I can certainly see the holodeck as a boon to business. It would be nice to be able to virtually attend a meeting rather then drive across town, or crowd around a conference call. However, I suspect that the teleporter, and it's simpler cousin - replicators, are going to meet with a lot of resistance.
Having a device that can create goods out of basic materials that are locally available would kill the current economy. Granted, we would still have to pay for power and patented "Replicator" data designs. However, it would represent a major change in the world.
Almost all of these complaints were exactly the same when XP was released. Memory, drivers, utility, etc...
I remember the change from Windows 9x to XP. However, I don't remember it being that big of a deal. That could be because I cheated. I never upgraded to 98 or Me. I went from 95 on to NT, 2000, and XP.
I do remember the change from 3.1 to 95. I'd say it was more comparable to the current change from XP to Vista. I was using a Solaris machine, recently upgraded from SunOS, at work. So I appreciated the UI improvements in 95. However, 95 was extremely bloated compared to 3.1. Performance sucked when making comparisons on a 66MHz 486. Many of my DOS games stopped working. Thankfully, DOS emulation programs eventually made it possible to run the games again. However, I don't need to wonder what operating system I'd have switched to if Linux had been as mature as it is today.
I do think that has an impact on the current arguments. When 3.1 changed to 95, there weren't any real alternatives. Today, that's not true.
That said, I'm surprised by the shear number of XP vs. Vista comments, the scattering of a few Apple puck comments, and not a single comment about the Atari Jaguar.
Though I don't think it was the size of a football field, I remember this concept from Waterworld. As I recall, the kite gave the Mariner's boat quite a boost.
Your alternative requires you to be in a fixed location Yes and no. I generally can't use WiFi while driving. I can't really imagine people texting while driving, though I hear that a lot do try to kill themselves in this manor. However, I rarely have a problem getting a connection once I'm at my destination. As a bonus, unless I'm at home, WiFi really is free.
I never have understood paying for text messaging.
In my mind, I've been "Texting" for free since the early 90's, in the form of Instant Messaging. You could say since the early 80's if you count chat. I don't understand Cell Phone economics. Offer a service on the Internet, and consumers demand it for free. Offer a service on a cell phone, and consumers will pay you pennies a micro-second. To really sweeten the deal, most cell phones only offer a 12-key sub-micro keyboard that almost requires a toothpick to use and does require pressing keys multiple times to produce single basic characters.
No thanks. I'll stick to instant messaging and chat, along with a full-sized keyboard, for the affordable price of "Free"*.
*I do pay a basic connection fee (flat-fee based on number of bits available to down/upload per second, otherwise known as connection speed) to the Internet. However, this goes to my ISP, not to the message service.
why on earth does any one person need more than a laptop, a desktop computer with monitor and one printer at home? That sounds about right. Now multiply it by four other people in the house, three other families that VPN in, oh, and I still use a 75MHz Pentium laptop for electronic experiments. Honestly, if it were just me, I'd be happy with the laptop...
I'm a bit confused by your analysis.
Have you ever thought about starting your own oil drilling company? You can't, can you? Barriers to entry. What about a car company? Think you can navigate the patent mine-field just to produce an EFI system for an engine? You can't. Individuals can't enter any established industry.
You can either make the means of production completely state-based ( collective ownership with democratic control over how they're used ), or you can NOT make them collectively owned... Given that you end your analysis with:
This is one of the key reasons why the remaining socialists call themselves internationalists - because we realise that there is no possible solution on a small scale - we'd be at the mercy of the world's imperial powers. I'll assume you don't advocate the capitalist system. You show capitalism as bad because it's hard to start a business due to monopolies. You then show "internationalists" as good because they advocate making the means of production completely state-based. However, state-based ownership of business makes starting a business illegal due to government monopoly. I'm not really what you are advocating at this point.
As for:
collective ownership with democratic control over how they're used I've done business with several capitalist businesses that use a co-operative model, particularly in farming areas.I've found co-ops work very well in capitalist systems.
My wife has been telling me a story about a young co-worker. The girl had just started her senior year of high-school. Basic anatomy came up in a conversation between them. My wife discovered that the girl didn't know what an artery was. She thought all of the blood vessels were called veins. She lacked any understanding of the circulatory system, outside of it having something to do with blood. The girl claimed that it had never been taught in school. My wife told her that her biology teacher should be fired. She went home that night and asked for a school transfer the next day.
The second link in the summery offers a bit more information than the first link. However, both are missing details. It sounds like SanDisk is suing anyone who uses or interfaces with flash memory. The quote in the article seemed strange to me:
Our goal is to resolve these matters by offering the defendants the opportunity to participate in our patent licensing program for card and system technology. Otherwise, we will aggressively pursue these actions, seeking a prompt judicial resolution awarding damages, obtaining injunctive relief and banning importation of infringing product. I thought they were suppose to attempt to collect license fees before they sued.
The Yahoo/PC Magazine article seems to be cut off at the end. It stops at "for infringement of five SanDisk patents, including:".
...call for and vote in some corporate responsibility. Start with boycotts and then put pressure on politicians. In addition, research companies you do business with. Promote and provide positive feedback to companies that try to do good by their customers. Personally, I like to promote QWest DSL (with QWest as ISP). The service is good, I don't have any caps, and there are no restrictions on the software I choose to run on my system.
I don't have proof, but I'm willing to wager that all manner of English-speaking folk have never seen nor even heard of "Lost in Space"... Moreover, many people who don't come from English-speaking countries... certainty not seen old American television shows, be those phrases part of the American social idiom or not. Generally, I'd say you were correct. However, Slashdot is traditionally a geek site. "Lost in Space" isn't just an old television series. It was also a major science-fiction film. Geeks do love their cultural references. I'd be willing to bet that knowledge of "Lost in Space" was about on par with knowledge of Star Wars. Though not on par with knowledge of Star Trek. Those guys are fanatical about trivia.
well i reckon if i ran a business where people knocked on my door and asked me where to buy some cocaine, and i told them which address and what time to go to, and they gave me $1 for my time, then I'd be in a cell right away, despite not physically having any cocaine or selling it. I had to think about this a minute. I agree with you for the most part. However, you wouldn't be arrested for selling information. You would be arrested for having it. I'd think that most jurisdictions would say that you were aiding and abetting. As to how this might apply to the topic, if the web-site operator were actively encouraging people to post links to pirated material then a judge might call that operator an accomplice to the crime (even if the crime is civil). If the web-site operator could show diligence in removing links to pirated content, or perhaps if the operator took an active stance against links to pirated material,then the judge would most likely dismiss the charge.
Did this operator advertise links to pirated material? Did the operator take any steps to discourage links to pirated material? Ever wonder why large linking web-sites (such as Google) talk about implementing anti-piracy measures? Even if most of the measures are just annoyances that can be worked around? It's to show due diligence.
But all public education, government, law, civic amenities and broadcasting should be absolutely free of religion. That means no chapels in public hospitals, no religious dress in schools or public office, no "chastity rings" by students, no preaching by public officials, no tax breaks for religions, no pandering to religion in any way shape or form. In short, religious should be able practice what they like but to not expect any special perks or rights from the state. Has anyone ever noticed that extreme, opposing views often read the same way? Banning religion in public is just as bad as forcing it on the public.I don't agree with striking religion from historical or philosophical school texts any more than I agree with striking evolution from scientific school texts. Nor do I agree with dress-codes that target or exclude sub-groups within an organization. While I don't agree with tax-breaks based solely on religion, I see nothing wrong with giving charities a tax-break.
I suppose religion does mean different things to different people. I'm sure several people see religion as an affront to their secular lives while others see it as a safe harbor in a godless world. Myself, I see it more as a group of people with common values, morals, and beliefs. I've heard people people argue that I'm confusing religion with community. However, I'd much rather deal with religious leaders damming me to hell than community leaders imprisoning me for disagreeing with them. As well, I'd rather any common values, morals, or beliefs be based on voluntary association, rather than geography.
Scary to think that a team of grown, (presumably) reasonable adults can be convinced to kick down your door and point a gun in your face just because a random report on a computer screen says so--with absolutely no confirmation at all... Kind of reminds me of the stories I keep hearing about people driving into rivers, off cliffs, etc., on the advice of their GPS navigation units.
The pragmatic, 'impure' Linux users don't seem to be as vocal. They don't seem to flood message boards with statements of "thats ok, I don't need the source, thanks for supporting my platform anyways. I'd have to say that I'm far more 'impure' than pure when it comes to Linux software. I completely agree with the "thats ok, I don't need the source, thanks for supporting my platform anyways." mentality. It's when that support stops that I'd like the source code. I keep a Linux-2.4-based partition on my system to play a few games that Loki released. Games I paid for. It would be nice to dump that partition and recompile those games to work with current software. If a company wants to offer closed-source software for Linux, I'm all for it. But once they stop updating it to work with current versions of the OS, please allow someone else the opportunity.
I'm not sure what the message count is, seems to show up around 500. However, I also have this problem in Firefox 2.0.0.4 (Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070613 Firefox/2.0.0.4). I've also noticed that message summaries don't expand well if there are a lot of messages.
When used in conjunction with the discussion2 system, anything in quote tags is omitted from the message summery. This way you can tell at a glance what the message is saying, rather then what they are replying to. This is a very nice feature.
My boss, at my previous place of employment, was also the owner. He had a standard saying that he used in these situations, "Shit, you did exactly what I asked. What were you thinking?"
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My wife was in the military when we first started dating. Her commander pulled her aside one day and asked if she could get any games to run on his computer. The first thing she noticed about his computer was that the mouse was not connected. He had been using the keyboard exclusively. When she asked him about it, he replied that he didn't know what it was and it had never been hooked up. She hooked it up and gave a quick demonstration of it's use. He was very grateful. She did get sol.exe running for him. It's icon had been deleted, but the program was still there.
Open, closed, proprietary, whatever. Please, just tell me which container/codec pairing doesn't require me to illegally download software from the other side of the world just to watch video. Tell me which container/codec pairing can be freely distributed with the Linux distribution of my choice, anywhere in the world. Then, whomever actually reads your reply and has voting rights in the W3C, please vote in favor of that container/codec pairing.
According to Donald Kerr, a deputy director of national intelligence, privacy no longer can mean anonymity.
This is true. Networking is awkward in regards to /etc/init.d because networking, and how it's used, has changed a lot over the decades. /etc/init.d/ was designed to take the system from power-up to login, and from logout to power-down. It was never intended to handle things in-between. Starting the network as part of this process was important if login was dependent on the network being available (For example, NIS). On a system where the login credentials are kept, or cached, locally, networking is not needed to get the system into a state where login is possible. If networking is only required on the whim of the user, it should not be in /etc/init.d.
Now if you are running a server, you probably do want networking to start and stop in /etc/init.d/. On a server, networking is required for anything it's serving. And those services are started in /etc/init.d/ because it is a convenient place to put automation on a system that rarely, if ever, has a local login. As well, servers generally don't need to deal with physically moving between networks.
I can certainly see the holodeck as a boon to business. It would be nice to be able to virtually attend a meeting rather then drive across town, or crowd around a conference call. However, I suspect that the teleporter, and it's simpler cousin - replicators, are going to meet with a lot of resistance.
Having a device that can create goods out of basic materials that are locally available would kill the current economy. Granted, we would still have to pay for power and patented "Replicator" data designs. However, it would represent a major change in the world.
I remember the change from Windows 9x to XP. However, I don't remember it being that big of a deal. That could be because I cheated. I never upgraded to 98 or Me. I went from 95 on to NT, 2000, and XP.
I do remember the change from 3.1 to 95. I'd say it was more comparable to the current change from XP to Vista. I was using a Solaris machine, recently upgraded from SunOS, at work. So I appreciated the UI improvements in 95. However, 95 was extremely bloated compared to 3.1. Performance sucked when making comparisons on a 66MHz 486. Many of my DOS games stopped working. Thankfully, DOS emulation programs eventually made it possible to run the games again. However, I don't need to wonder what operating system I'd have switched to if Linux had been as mature as it is today.
I do think that has an impact on the current arguments. When 3.1 changed to 95, there weren't any real alternatives. Today, that's not true.
That said, I'm surprised by the shear number of XP vs. Vista comments, the scattering of a few Apple puck comments, and not a single comment about the Atari Jaguar.
Though I don't think it was the size of a football field, I remember this concept from Waterworld. As I recall, the kite gave the Mariner's boat quite a boost.
I never have understood paying for text messaging.
In my mind, I've been "Texting" for free since the early 90's, in the form of Instant Messaging. You could say since the early 80's if you count chat. I don't understand Cell Phone economics. Offer a service on the Internet, and consumers demand it for free. Offer a service on a cell phone, and consumers will pay you pennies a micro-second. To really sweeten the deal, most cell phones only offer a 12-key sub-micro keyboard that almost requires a toothpick to use and does require pressing keys multiple times to produce single basic characters.
No thanks. I'll stick to instant messaging and chat, along with a full-sized keyboard, for the affordable price of "Free"*.
*I do pay a basic connection fee (flat-fee based on number of bits available to down/upload per second, otherwise known as connection speed) to the Internet. However, this goes to my ISP, not to the message service.
My wife has been telling me a story about a young co-worker. The girl had just started her senior year of high-school. Basic anatomy came up in a conversation between them. My wife discovered that the girl didn't know what an artery was. She thought all of the blood vessels were called veins. She lacked any understanding of the circulatory system, outside of it having something to do with blood. The girl claimed that it had never been taught in school. My wife told her that her biology teacher should be fired. She went home that night and asked for a school transfer the next day.
The Yahoo/PC Magazine article seems to be cut off at the end. It stops at "for infringement of five SanDisk patents, including:".
I'm not sure those would help. Then we would have to deal with the "War on Comets".
...call for and vote in some corporate responsibility. Start with boycotts and then put pressure on politicians. In addition, research companies you do business with. Promote and provide positive feedback to companies that try to do good by their customers. Personally, I like to promote QWest DSL (with QWest as ISP). The service is good, I don't have any caps, and there are no restrictions on the software I choose to run on my system.Did this operator advertise links to pirated material? Did the operator take any steps to discourage links to pirated material? Ever wonder why large linking web-sites (such as Google) talk about implementing anti-piracy measures? Even if most of the measures are just annoyances that can be worked around? It's to show due diligence.
I suppose religion does mean different things to different people. I'm sure several people see religion as an affront to their secular lives while others see it as a safe harbor in a godless world. Myself, I see it more as a group of people with common values, morals, and beliefs. I've heard people people argue that I'm confusing religion with community. However, I'd much rather deal with religious leaders damming me to hell than community leaders imprisoning me for disagreeing with them. As well, I'd rather any common values, morals, or beliefs be based on voluntary association, rather than geography.
I primarily use Evolution because it can sync to my PDA. I haven't found anything for Thunderbird/Lightning that works with my PDA on Linux.
I'm not sure what the message count is, seems to show up around 500. However, I also have this problem in Firefox 2.0.0.4 (Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070613 Firefox/2.0.0.4). I've also noticed that message summaries don't expand well if there are a lot of messages.
When used in conjunction with the discussion2 system, anything in quote tags is omitted from the message summery. This way you can tell at a glance what the message is saying, rather then what they are replying to. This is a very nice feature.
My boss, at my previous place of employment, was also the owner. He had a standard saying that he used in these situations, "Shit, you did exactly what I asked. What were you thinking?"