Power outages and the likes don't do too well for using credit cards, debit cards, etc. (Checks ok, but nothing electronic.) And yes - I have seen that even while traveling. (Stopped to get gas, and they didn't have power at the time, so the credit card system was out. They did, fortunately, have a manual, non-electronic credit card entry system that they could use though. Wow, you must have really been out in the boondocks. I can't remember the last time I seen a manual credit card machine. I do remember having access to one when I was a kid, working the summer in a convenience store. However, it was never used.
Of course, a manual credit card machine is useless if the cash register is electronic and the power goes out. Granted, the early electronic registers could be bypassed during power outages. The receipts could just be entered when power came back. However, most stores have modernized on registrars that are linked to inventory control and accounting systems. When the power goes out, the store is closed. No purchase possible.
Personally I can't remember the last time I touched a bank note - I do everything on credit or debit cards Have children. Between allowances and the money-raising fairs that the school holds regularly, you'll be handling plenty of bank notes. I really wish they would come up with a system to make credit cards easier for both preteen children and very small vendors.
You're duped. Using a credit card as a debit card (paying the bill in full before interest is applied to the outstanding balance) is one of the fastest ways of increasing your credit score. I made a few mistakes with money when I was younger and didn't really have a good credit score. When it came time to buy a house, I found that my credit wasn't good enough. For the next year, I used my credit card for all purchases (food, gas, entertainment, etc.) and paid the bill in full at the end of the month. After that year, I was able to get a low-interest 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. I recommend this method to anyone that needs to build credit fast.
I have to agree with you. I switched my brother to a Linux-based system a while back. He uses his digital camera quite a bit. The first thing that confused him was not needing to install the Windows software from his camera's CD. He got over that. However, in Windows, he used Adobe's Photoshop Elements. He wanted to know what to use to edit his pictures on the new system. I still remember his response, "Gimp? Gimp? You want me to use a program called Gimp? Why would I use a program whose name means crippled?"
Disclaimer: Outside of glancing at the cover, I don't know anything about Plan 9.
I came across Plan 9 while going through Linux kernel options. Linux has a compatibility module for the distributed file system. I did a little digging and some light reading to learn about it. The cluster aspect of the operating system sounds interesting. I think it will become more useful in the home as multi-core and embedded systems become more common. I can imagine the refrigerator borrowing a few cycles from the multimedia center to send an email reminding you to buy milk. However, the part of the operating system I find the most interesting is the refinement of everything is a file. From my understanding, if I connect a scanner to one of my computers, I need only redirect the scanner to the network to use it on any system. Under Linux, I use Sane for this purpose. However, under Plan 9, it would be simple redirection without need for server software. The same would work for any hardware.
Of course, I may just be regurgitating somebody else's bad information. Take the above with a grain of salt and do some research.
Current copyright is: 70 years after death of author, or if work of corporate authorship, the shorter of 95 years from publication, or 120 years from creation. However, that only applies to anything copyright after March 1, 1989. Before that, details such as notice, renewal of notice, and published vs unpublished all come into play. Cornell has a nice page that lists all of the dates and rules.
Great, now we'll have the extreme left nut jobs chaining themselves to plants and committing vegetable rights terrorism Or it could have the opposite effect. I never have understood vegetarians. People are omnivores. We eat animals, plants, bugs, microbes, and anything else that may, or may not, have nutritional value. So do a lot other animals. We tend not to eat friends, family, and pets because we share a bond. We shy away from eating our enemies because we don't want to be eaten when our enemies catch us. I've often wondered if a Vagen would advocate killing a lion for the terrible pain it caused while eating a gazelle.
...Konquerer which has always been flaky. I use both Konquerer and FireFox on a regular basis. However, I've found the opposite to be true. I do prefer FireFox's user interface. I especially prefer FireFox's Find function in the status bar. I hate having to deal with multiple windows and dialog boxes for a single application. FireFox's extensions also add a level of customization that Konquerer lacks. However, browser plugins are much easier to manage in Konquerer. I've also found Konquerer to be significantly faster when opening and saving files.
OK, I know I'm a geek that has been on the Internet for far too many years. However some of these examples are questionable.
Streaming video: YouTube made it famous; adult movies made it economically viable. Porn sites had streaming video before YouTube existed. It evolved from video conferencing.
Videoconferencing: Businesspeople increasingly use online chat and embedded video rather than conducting face-to-face meetings. Before that, it was used to communicate with Live! Girls! Now! My first experience with video on a computer was a black and white security camera. It was hooked up to a Tandy CoCo3 and saved in GIF format. However, it wasn't exactly real time, so probably doesn't qualify as video conferencing. This one started by voyeurs being connected to peeking toms via the brand new WWW. It also made the long imagined video phone possible. Video is far more convenient when dealing with international business.
Digital rights management: Through their disregard for intellectual property rights, adult sites helped spur the music and film industries to apply DRM to their online content. Huh? Adult sites have high regard for intellectual property rights. At least they do if they have original content. Not only do they need to protect their content from file sharing, they also have to protect it from unscrupulous sites that claim it as their own content. My understanding was that adult sites pioneered at least some of the technology and are big advocates of it. Of course, I could be wrong. I tend to avoid anything diseased with DRM.
E-commerce: The content on adult sites was so compelling (to some), it helped people overcome their fear of using a credit card online, according to Frederick Lane, author of Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs of Pornography in the Cyber Age. I don't see this one. It may have helped at first. However, I'd say the the opposite became true when people started to realize that credit card transactions can be used as evidence against them. The only thing I've ever found that reassures people, concerning online transactions, are the studies they did in the early part of the decade that showed on-line transactions were safer then off-line.
I wonder if my boss would go for me doing some cross-training with a pr0n site developer I always thought it was interesting that the adult film convention was held right after COMDEX. From documentaries I've seen, porn is really pushing technology.
How much original content must a design have before it can be patentable? I admit that my understanding of international patent agreements is poor. I have enough trouble understanding the patent laws in my own country. I'd imagine that it is entirely possible that the patent laws in Russia last a lifetime and do not accept prior art. Laws that apply inside a country are created by that country's government. They can write the law any way they want. International agreements are written on a case-by-case basis. Is prior art and length of patent written into Russia's agreements? Or are they simply claims of ownership that other signers of the agreement must abide by? Nations that do not have agreements with Russia can do what ever they want. As of yet, there is not a unified government of Earth that writes and enforces laws.
All you have to know to understand Americans these days (particularly politicians) is that they've lost all ability to view things in perspective. Not only has the electorate, in general, lost all semblance of perspective, they've also completely lost the ability to separate fantasy from reality. They seriously believe that banning the fantasy will eliminate to reality.
No matter how many weapons you possess, the Army has all the nukes. Right, like the Government is ever going to nuke themselves. If it ever comes to that, then the Government will lose all legitimacy and the United States will cease to exist. At that point it won't matter what the constitution says.
Stop lying to yourselves and embrace the truth that every other civilized nation already has : You don`t need guns. Period. The way I see it, there are three groups of people where guns are concerned: Government, criminals, and law-abiding citizens. I might consider replacing my gun with a bow for hunting, though I doubt many duck hunters would. However, I will not give up the gun I keep for self-defense until the other two groups do the same.
Cool. Germany just made computer security illegal. The real question is what will their next step be? Will they realize their mistake and revoke the law? Or, once no one can scan their own network for security breaches, will they make it worse and start outlawing software like netcat?
I found this in one of the comments:
While fan-fiction has been labeled as such since the original Star Trek series phenomenon, it has actually existed for far longer in the form of colorful histories about real or imagined people. (I would point to the Arthurian legends, Shakespeare and the Homeric epics, to name but a very few.) It is a fundamental form of recorded expression that has spawned both masterpieces and drivel since the beginning of history, and we will lose much if it is ever actually declared illegal. Quite apart from the disrespect evinced by Mr. Williams, many people are worried that FanLib's efforts will bring down a lawsuit that could result in such a ruling. Perhaps if we lived in a society whose approach to intellectual property was more balanced, a commercial fan-fiction site might have some merit... I can understand their fear of attention. I remember, back when I was a teenager, a friend had his computer seized. He ran a BBS that offered up/downloads. There were several images, drawn by fans, of Garfield the cat. It's been a very long time. However, I believe they got him on trademark infringement. I'd imagine that fan fiction writers are subject to the same laws.
Interesting. This creates an easy way to back up my media, share it with friends, etc. However, if I put it on a public P2P network, every spammer in the world will have my e-mail address. If someone steals my computer, I already assume that any account information, such as e-mail, is compromised. Having music on the stolen computer, with my e-mail address embedded, doesn't really add to that.
iTunes isn't available for Linux, so I've never used it. Is a current e-mail address required to maintain an iTunes account? If not then I suppose it would just be a matter of using a spam e-mail account to sign up. However, it would be a good deterrent for many people.
Watching compiler messages scroll by does not constitute "learning how an OS really works". Watching compiler messages scroll by doesn't really have anything to do with learning how the OS works. For that, I'd suggest reading through the excellent documentation. Examine each installation step. Ask yourself why the current step is being performed. Examine the command being used and the parameters sent to it. After installation, I'd suggest examining the many scripts that been installed on your new system. Gentoo offers the opportunity to learn how an OS really works. Of course, you're free to blow that opportunity off, copy and paste the commands from the manual, and pretend you're "1337".
Compiler messages come in handy for diagnostics. That is their purpose. They tell you exactly which options were sent to the.config script, what tests the script preformed, and exactly where a problem occurred should compilation fail. Of course, compiler messages are useless if you don't compile code. But then, you wouldn't be using Gentoo.
I understand your comment and it's relevance to the comment above it. However, looking at the comments after your comment, it simply amazes me that a discussion concerning office applications on OSX can so easily devolve into a Windows/Linux flame war. Come on people, let's at least stick to the platform being discussed!
Now that that is out of my system...
I went digging around in the Microsoft Office EULA. It took a while to find. You can download it from Microsoft's site. However, it's in an EXE file that I couldn't get to open on my Linux machine. I ended up booting an old Windows machine and found it in the Office help system. I like the wording.
LIMITED EXPRESS WARRANTY. Manufacturer warrants that: (a) the SOFTWARE will perform substantially in accordance with the accompanying Product Manual(s) for a period of 90 days from the date of receipt... So, Microsoft says the software will work like the product manual says for the most part. NeoOffice says it's not perfect. However, they try to fix bugs when you find them. Both admit they are not perfect. NeoOffice advertises this fact in a FAQ on their site. Microsoft buries this fact in a EULA that you read during installation. NeoOffice states that they try to fix bugs when users find them. Microsoft offers a refund only if a bug exists that causes operation to be substantially different from the product manual. You also need to report it within 90 days of purchase. I didn't get a product manual with MSOffice. Does Clippy count?
NeoOffice could work on their marketing strategy a bit. However, I'd trust them over a company that, in so may words, tells you "Too Bad" when you encounter a problem.
does not mean your pet peeve is going completely ignored. Not only is my pet peeve being ignored, it's described as a feature. I have my home directory mounted from a NFS file server. If I'm logged in on one machine with Firefox running, I can't run Firefox on any other machine. Firefox apparently can't handle having multiple instances updating the same profile. A lock file is created that causes Firefox to show the Profile in Use error and refuse to start.
Wow, it's an interesting case and definitely a question of online rights. A follow-up article has been posted to the SeatlePI. However, from the first article:
Requa says he didn't produce the video, but acknowledges that he, among others at the school, posted a link to the video on his MySpace page. So this student received a 40-day suspension for linking to the video. The student did not record the video, nor was he in it. The follow-up article confirms this:
Two other students, one who shot the video and another who danced behind Mong, also were suspended for 40 days. The sad thing is that this video was brought to light by a local news investigation into videos posted on YouTube that are critical of teachers. The teacher is currently retired. I couldn't find the date that the video was made. However, given the retired status of the teacher, it doesn't seem to be from the current school year.
Unfortunately, the student's suspension will not be lifted. The student didn't stand up for his rights soon enough. The school used common scare tactics to elicit a confession of involvement in the production of the video. The article doesn't say what the level of involvement was. However, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that it was merely knowing of its existence and linking to it.
who wants to fuck around doing all that just to play some mp3's or print a letter? thats why windows wins.
Someone does. If I'm bored, I do. And only one person has to fuck around, come up with a fix, submit it upstream and get it merged for everyone else to have their problem solved.
it's rediculous to suggest such a practise will be accepted by the masses, thats my point. until basic basic shit like this works without a problem, pushing the linux desktop is a wasted effort. Such a practice is already accepted by the masses. I've often come across codecs that don't ship with Windows. Several of them use patented technologies. With Windows you can download codecs from sites that sell them, offer them free with advertising, or are hosted in countries that do not recognize software patents. With Linux, it's exactly the same. To purchase codecs for Linux, look at Fluendo's site. Several Linux distributions are based in countries that do not recognize software patents. These distributions include most every codec you will ever encounter in their software repository. For distributions that are based in patent encumbered countries, there is generally an add-on repository based in a software-patent-free country. For SuSE, it's Packman's site. I know Ubuntu has such a repository as well.
As for CUPS, what does a Windows user do when they have problems with their printer? Most of them I know call me for help. However, baring free technical support from friends and relatives, most Windows users contact their vendor. They read through the knowledge base to find a match to their problem. They write an email to technical support. Technical support either tells them how to fix their problem, or that the problem will be fixed in a future release. This is supposing that they are working with a quality vendor that won't just ignore them. How is this any different than filling a bug report or asking for help in the distribution's forums? Actually, I can think of a couple of ways. Your request for help in the forums won't be deleted to cover up a problem. You will have a wide audience at least glance at your request for help, most of whom will actually know how the program functions.
One strong advantage that Linux has over Windows is that you do not have to wait for that future release to fix a problem. Should you possess the skill to fix the problem, you can. You can then help others fix the same problem via redistribution. This is not possible with closed-source software.
Personally, I've never understood cell phone texting, except for occasional, quick, short message. Why pay to send a text message on a really crappy keyboard when you can send it for free on a real keyboard using your laptop and a WiFi hot spot? I've seen lots of people do it though, even in the same room.
Anyone that believes spanking is inherently wrong, and yet supports having a police department is simply a hypocrite. I believe that physical abuse by the police department should be used only as a last resort when all other routes have failed, or when violence is used against them. Funny, that is the same view I have when it comes to disciplining children.
When a city successfully runs with no law enforcement, I will consider reevaluating this stance. Ancient Rome. The only thing approaching a police force was the military and very few active-duty milites stayed in Rome for long. I am not a historian. However, I do enjoy watching the history channel. They have a show called Cities of the Underworld. A recent episode covered Rome. One of the digs was of a fire house from the time of the first Roman emperor. They talked about how the city was lawless when he came to power. One of the first things he did was to establish fire and police departments. So I don't think that Rome is a good example of a city without police.
The reason this is different is that we aren't talking about newspapers, or television, or whatever, we are talking about The Internet. I don't understand the difference you see here. Just because computers are now being used to distribute information doesn't mean the information is magically protected. This argument reminds me of several patent debates where some company thought adding an 'E' at the beginning of the product name made it an innovative product.
People have been trying to control the distribution of information since humans learned to communicate. Before paper and pen, people had their tongues removed to censor their speech. Latter, books were burned. Still later, publishing houses were ransacked, radio signals were scrambled or shut down, and people everywhere were jailed. Each new form of censorship has met resistance. My personal favorites were Radio Free America and pirate radio stations. The Internet is not any more immune to censorship then any of the previous methods of information distribution. I do hope that people continue to find ways to resist it.
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Of course, a manual credit card machine is useless if the cash register is electronic and the power goes out. Granted, the early electronic registers could be bypassed during power outages. The receipts could just be entered when power came back. However, most stores have modernized on registrars that are linked to inventory control and accounting systems. When the power goes out, the store is closed. No purchase possible.
You're duped. Using a credit card as a debit card (paying the bill in full before interest is applied to the outstanding balance) is one of the fastest ways of increasing your credit score. I made a few mistakes with money when I was younger and didn't really have a good credit score. When it came time to buy a house, I found that my credit wasn't good enough. For the next year, I used my credit card for all purchases (food, gas, entertainment, etc.) and paid the bill in full at the end of the month. After that year, I was able to get a low-interest 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. I recommend this method to anyone that needs to build credit fast.
I have to agree with you. I switched my brother to a Linux-based system a while back. He uses his digital camera quite a bit. The first thing that confused him was not needing to install the Windows software from his camera's CD. He got over that. However, in Windows, he used Adobe's Photoshop Elements. He wanted to know what to use to edit his pictures on the new system. I still remember his response, "Gimp? Gimp? You want me to use a program called Gimp? Why would I use a program whose name means crippled?"
Disclaimer: Outside of glancing at the cover, I don't know anything about Plan 9.
I came across Plan 9 while going through Linux kernel options. Linux has a compatibility module for the distributed file system. I did a little digging and some light reading to learn about it. The cluster aspect of the operating system sounds interesting. I think it will become more useful in the home as multi-core and embedded systems become more common. I can imagine the refrigerator borrowing a few cycles from the multimedia center to send an email reminding you to buy milk. However, the part of the operating system I find the most interesting is the refinement of everything is a file. From my understanding, if I connect a scanner to one of my computers, I need only redirect the scanner to the network to use it on any system. Under Linux, I use Sane for this purpose. However, under Plan 9, it would be simple redirection without need for server software. The same would work for any hardware.
Of course, I may just be regurgitating somebody else's bad information. Take the above with a grain of salt and do some research.
In the US, corporate authorship is the shorter of 95 years from publication, or 120 years from creation.
Current copyright is: 70 years after death of author, or if work of corporate authorship, the shorter of 95 years from publication, or 120 years from creation. However, that only applies to anything copyright after March 1, 1989. Before that, details such as notice, renewal of notice, and published vs unpublished all come into play. Cornell has a nice page that lists all of the dates and rules.
...Konquerer which has always been flaky. I use both Konquerer and FireFox on a regular basis. However, I've found the opposite to be true. I do prefer FireFox's user interface. I especially prefer FireFox's Find function in the status bar. I hate having to deal with multiple windows and dialog boxes for a single application. FireFox's extensions also add a level of customization that Konquerer lacks. However, browser plugins are much easier to manage in Konquerer. I've also found Konquerer to be significantly faster when opening and saving files.Stop lying to yourselves and embrace the truth that every other civilized nation already has : You don`t need guns. Period. The way I see it, there are three groups of people where guns are concerned: Government, criminals, and law-abiding citizens. I might consider replacing my gun with a bow for hunting, though I doubt many duck hunters would. However, I will not give up the gun I keep for self-defense until the other two groups do the same.
Cool. Germany just made computer security illegal. The real question is what will their next step be? Will they realize their mistake and revoke the law? Or, once no one can scan their own network for security breaches, will they make it worse and start outlawing software like netcat?
Interesting. This creates an easy way to back up my media, share it with friends, etc. However, if I put it on a public P2P network, every spammer in the world will have my e-mail address. If someone steals my computer, I already assume that any account information, such as e-mail, is compromised. Having music on the stolen computer, with my e-mail address embedded, doesn't really add to that.
iTunes isn't available for Linux, so I've never used it. Is a current e-mail address required to maintain an iTunes account? If not then I suppose it would just be a matter of using a spam e-mail account to sign up. However, it would be a good deterrent for many people.
Compiler messages come in handy for diagnostics. That is their purpose. They tell you exactly which options were sent to the
Now that that is out of my system...
I went digging around in the Microsoft Office EULA. It took a while to find. You can download it from Microsoft's site. However, it's in an EXE file that I couldn't get to open on my Linux machine. I ended up booting an old Windows machine and found it in the Office help system. I like the wording. LIMITED EXPRESS WARRANTY. Manufacturer warrants that: (a) the SOFTWARE will perform substantially in accordance with the accompanying Product Manual(s) for a period of 90 days from the date of receipt... So, Microsoft says the software will work like the product manual says for the most part. NeoOffice says it's not perfect. However, they try to fix bugs when you find them. Both admit they are not perfect. NeoOffice advertises this fact in a FAQ on their site. Microsoft buries this fact in a EULA that you read during installation. NeoOffice states that they try to fix bugs when users find them. Microsoft offers a refund only if a bug exists that causes operation to be substantially different from the product manual. You also need to report it within 90 days of purchase. I didn't get a product manual with MSOffice. Does Clippy count?
NeoOffice could work on their marketing strategy a bit. However, I'd trust them over a company that, in so may words, tells you "Too Bad" when you encounter a problem.
Unfortunately, the student's suspension will not be lifted. The student didn't stand up for his rights soon enough. The school used common scare tactics to elicit a confession of involvement in the production of the video. The article doesn't say what the level of involvement was. However, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that it was merely knowing of its existence and linking to it.
As for CUPS, what does a Windows user do when they have problems with their printer? Most of them I know call me for help. However, baring free technical support from friends and relatives, most Windows users contact their vendor. They read through the knowledge base to find a match to their problem. They write an email to technical support. Technical support either tells them how to fix their problem, or that the problem will be fixed in a future release. This is supposing that they are working with a quality vendor that won't just ignore them. How is this any different than filling a bug report or asking for help in the distribution's forums? Actually, I can think of a couple of ways. Your request for help in the forums won't be deleted to cover up a problem. You will have a wide audience at least glance at your request for help, most of whom will actually know how the program functions.
One strong advantage that Linux has over Windows is that you do not have to wait for that future release to fix a problem. Should you possess the skill to fix the problem, you can. You can then help others fix the same problem via redistribution. This is not possible with closed-source software.
It's PC World. What do you expect? It's always been a low quality magazine. I never have understood why people read it.
Personally, I've never understood cell phone texting, except for occasional, quick, short message. Why pay to send a text message on a really crappy keyboard when you can send it for free on a real keyboard using your laptop and a WiFi hot spot? I've seen lots of people do it though, even in the same room.
When a city successfully runs with no law enforcement, I will consider reevaluating this stance. Ancient Rome. The only thing approaching a police force was the military and very few active-duty milites stayed in Rome for long. I am not a historian. However, I do enjoy watching the history channel. They have a show called Cities of the Underworld. A recent episode covered Rome. One of the digs was of a fire house from the time of the first Roman emperor. They talked about how the city was lawless when he came to power. One of the first things he did was to establish fire and police departments. So I don't think that Rome is a good example of a city without police.
People have been trying to control the distribution of information since humans learned to communicate. Before paper and pen, people had their tongues removed to censor their speech. Latter, books were burned. Still later, publishing houses were ransacked, radio signals were scrambled or shut down, and people everywhere were jailed. Each new form of censorship has met resistance. My personal favorites were Radio Free America and pirate radio stations. The Internet is not any more immune to censorship then any of the previous methods of information distribution. I do hope that people continue to find ways to resist it.