I know the Willie Horton issue was raised initially by a Democrat; I believe (but could be mistaken) that it was Al Gore's campaign that used it first.
As far as I see it, the reasons for the US (at least) being a republic are based more in logistical issues and the idea that various elected government officials will do what's right for the people, taking into account their highly developed senses of morals and justice, et al.
I believe you're missing one of the most, if not the most, important points of republican government. A republic, as opposed to a democracy, is designed to protect the rights of minorities (it doesn't always do so, of course, but that's an implementation issue, not necessarily a design flaw).
If Americans decide not to conduct business as usual with some country, then that's our call to make.
And I'd say the most "democratic" way for them to express their views on that is in the marketplace, not by government fiat; wouldn't you agree?
In addition to the OS/2 Workplace Shell that is oustanding to this day, back in the mid '90s, IBM was doing some good interface work that has been abandoned. Maybe some of that could be a guide for the future development of these projects.
They wanted to use a human-looking "agent," basically a little head on your screen, that would listen for your commands, and provide you with information. The agent could assist you with tasks, and could take care of tasks at a given time which you assigned previously (y'know, like cron).
Also, the ideas they had about document display with Taligent/OpenDoc were of some value, I believe.
I don't spite, nor begrudge my colleagues, Brett. Rather, I say, use what works for you. You, on the other hand, *DO* begrudge any and all who use the GPL. You insist that all people coding open source software release it in a way *YOU* can take and make money on. I don't suppose you feel any desire to then funnel a fair amount back to the coders, do you? No. You'd rather that coders just give you stuff, to hell with their rights, time, etc.
This is one of the best summaries of how the anti-GPL people come off to GPL people. They rant and rave about "freedom," when in fact what they really want is the "freedom" to restrict what others can do with software (i.e., restrictive binary licensing). But, what's worse is that they want a free ride from Free Software authors while doing so.
If that isn't downright despicable, I don't know what is.
Look, I have no problem with the BSD License, and similar licenses, as a general rule. It's not what I prefer, but I understand that some people prefer them. The GPL advocates I see posts from seem to feel the same way Now, if we could just get the remaining few rabid anti-GPL advocates to take the same view, everyone can be happy.
Is there some magical "fairy dust" that gets sprinkled on to government employees that makes them immune to the temptations that apparently mere mortals cannot be trusted with?
Really. Think about it honestly, just briefly.
Honest. Goverment employees are still human, and therefore fallible, last I checked.
When Australians were coerced into "turning in" (a misnomer) most of their firearms, it was inevitable that their speech would be next to go.
There are a heck of a lot of people who will argue until they're blue in the face that there is no relation between the two, but remember what Mao said:
Every Communist must grasp the truth, "Political power rows out of the barrel of a gun."
Why is it disappointing? If you don't need/like/want the "user experience" of KDE or GNOME, wouldn't you just use one of the numerous other UIs out there (including the plain old console)?
That's the great thing about the Free Unix scene; we've got more UI choices than you can shake a stick at.
I'd guess that the KDE team is not targeting its interface at UNIX old-timers, because UNIX old-timers aren't really clamoring for anything resembling KDE, wouldn't you say? If you've followed the KDE project from the beginning, you know that the goal has *always* been to make UNIX useable as a desktop operating system for the masses. I think they're moving towards achieving that goal.
Still, I find KDE useful, and am really looking forward to KDE 2.0 with KOffice. It's quite flexible, so I can create pretty much just the kind of interface I prefer...now if I could just convince them to add a few more virtual desktops (8 is not enough)...:-)
Isn't the whole alpha/beta/gamma thing kind of irrelevant when you're talking about open source software, anyhow? Open source software, by its nature, is always under development, and is always in the cycle of feature addition/bug fixing/etc.
Seems to me that the Linux model of devel tree and stable tree is much more appropriate. When Mozilla is ready to start a stable branch (and it's getting fairly close), then I think that's what they should do.
Leave the "alphas" and "betas" to the Netscape Communicator crew.
I have brought this up numerous times here on Slashdot, to no avail. Your comparison to manufacturing is right on; one simply cannot pretend that education is like making widgets.
I think the point you made about the fact that DC schools were spending *more* money than comparative public schools in North Suburban Chicago is the strongest argument I've ever seen (even stronger than the considerable evidence regarding private schools, perhaps) in support of the idea that, given some minimal level of infrastructure and salary expenditure, additional funds are completely irrelevant to the quality of eductation provided.
Sadly, until more people realize this, and start holding the educational bureaucrats responsible, little will be accomplished.
M-x spook, and other means of inserting suspicious keywords are nice, but imagine how much more material we could make the NSA chase if even half your outgoing mail was PGP encrypted!
If you don't have GnuPG or PGP, get it now, and start using it!
Jackbooted government thugs will do anything now in the name of "safety," and the average person will support such actions, because the average person is a coward.
Our firearms are gradually being taken from us, leaving only government with any real power. Now, our speech is being taken from us, gradually, just like the guns, and we won't be able to do anything about it, even if we wanted to.
Everything now is done in the name of "safety." Liberty means nothing to the average Joe. We now live in an oppressive quasi-matriarchy, where freedom means "the freedom to not do unsafe things."
I'm sure a lot of people will object to what I say, but I don't care. That's how I feel about it. I think we need to get back to trying to preserve our Liberty, instead of trying to deny our humanity.
In the past, it was my opinion that patents were generally a good thing, and encouraged innovation. I believed that software patents, for a number of reasons, were uniquely bad, because they differed in many ways from other types of patents.
But the sheer idiocy behind some of the patents granted I've seen recently is slowly turning my opinion around. I am starting to believe that patents are just a bad idea, period. They do not protect the "little guy"; instead they are horded by large corporations. And, really, if an idea is truly good, you should be able to make money actually producing the product or service it covers. True, someone else could do the same, but if the idea truly is unique and non-obvious, you should still have a leg up for a while.
It's just getting to the point, I'm afraid, where the negative effects of patents are beginning to outweigh the positives.
If eliminating patents all together is too radical a solution, perhaps some reform of the patent system is in order; patent length could be shortened, competent patent examiners could be hired, a limit on the number of patents per individual/organization could be instituted, etc.
I hereby patent displaying any Windows program on an LCD screen on Tuesdays!
The whole patent system is increasing resembling the Slashdot "First Post" phenomenon. It's not about ingenuity, invention or originality. It's just about being the first to submit something.
What I'm trying to say is that the only *tangible* thing you're buying, really, from the proprietary vendors is support.
I say that because the original poster was talking about ratios of customer profits as if the more copies out there, the more costs were being incurred by the vendor. That's clearly not the case; the only costs they really incur are from support. Thus, I claim, that what you are *really* buying from the proprietary vendors is, in fact, support.
Slashdot Mirror
I know the Willie Horton issue was raised initially by a Democrat; I believe (but could be mistaken) that it was Al Gore's campaign that used it first.
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I believe you're missing one of the most, if not the most, important points of republican government. A republic, as opposed to a democracy, is designed to protect the rights of minorities (it doesn't always do so, of course, but that's an implementation issue, not necessarily a design flaw).
If Americans decide not to conduct business as usual with some country, then that's our call to make.
And I'd say the most "democratic" way for them to express their views on that is in the marketplace, not by government fiat; wouldn't you agree?
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...two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for lunch.
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They wanted to use a human-looking "agent," basically a little head on your screen, that would listen for your commands, and provide you with information. The agent could assist you with tasks, and could take care of tasks at a given time which you assigned previously (y'know, like cron).
Also, the ideas they had about document display with Taligent/OpenDoc were of some value, I believe.
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This is one of the best summaries of how the anti-GPL people come off to GPL people. They rant and rave about "freedom," when in fact what they really want is the "freedom" to restrict what others can do with software (i.e., restrictive binary licensing). But, what's worse is that they want a free ride from Free Software authors while doing so.
If that isn't downright despicable, I don't know what is.
Look, I have no problem with the BSD License, and similar licenses, as a general rule. It's not what I prefer, but I understand that some people prefer them. The GPL advocates I see posts from seem to feel the same way Now, if we could just get the remaining few rabid anti-GPL advocates to take the same view, everyone can be happy.
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Really. Think about it honestly, just briefly.
Honest. Goverment employees are still human, and therefore fallible, last I checked.
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There are a heck of a lot of people who will argue until they're blue in the face that there is no relation between the two, but remember what Mao said:
Every Communist must grasp the truth, "Political power rows out of the barrel of a gun."
It applies to more than just Communists.
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Why is it disappointing? If you don't need/like/want the "user experience" of KDE or GNOME, wouldn't you just use one of the numerous other UIs out there (including the plain old console)?
That's the great thing about the Free Unix scene; we've got more UI choices than you can shake a stick at.
I'd guess that the KDE team is not targeting its interface at UNIX old-timers, because UNIX old-timers aren't really clamoring for anything resembling KDE, wouldn't you say? If you've followed the KDE project from the beginning, you know that the goal has *always* been to make UNIX useable as a desktop operating system for the masses. I think they're moving towards achieving that goal.
Still, I find KDE useful, and am really looking forward to KDE 2.0 with KOffice. It's quite flexible, so I can create pretty much just the kind of interface I prefer...now if I could just convince them to add a few more virtual desktops (8 is not enough)... :-)
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Seems to me that the Linux model of devel tree and stable tree is much more appropriate. When Mozilla is ready to start a stable branch (and it's getting fairly close), then I think that's what they should do.
Leave the "alphas" and "betas" to the Netscape Communicator crew.
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I'm using everything straight from CVS, like the FAQ says, and it works great with Quake 3 demo test on my G200. 800x600/vertex, decent frame rate.
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I think the point you made about the fact that DC schools were spending *more* money than comparative public schools in North Suburban Chicago is the strongest argument I've ever seen (even stronger than the considerable evidence regarding private schools, perhaps) in support of the idea that, given some minimal level of infrastructure and salary expenditure, additional funds are completely irrelevant to the quality of eductation provided.
Sadly, until more people realize this, and start holding the educational bureaucrats responsible, little will be accomplished.
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If you don't have GnuPG or PGP, get it now, and start using it!
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Well, that's kind of the point, isn't it?
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Our firearms are gradually being taken from us, leaving only government with any real power. Now, our speech is being taken from us, gradually, just like the guns, and we won't be able to do anything about it, even if we wanted to.
Everything now is done in the name of "safety." Liberty means nothing to the average Joe. We now live in an oppressive quasi-matriarchy, where freedom means "the freedom to not do unsafe things."
I'm sure a lot of people will object to what I say, but I don't care. That's how I feel about it. I think we need to get back to trying to preserve our Liberty, instead of trying to deny our humanity.
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It's probably not your connection; the load average on Slashdot has been obscene the last couple of mornings, like around 30.
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prayer 7777/tcp #prayer
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This is Slashdot, isn't it?
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In the past, it was my opinion that patents were generally a good thing, and encouraged innovation. I believed that software patents, for a number of reasons, were uniquely bad, because they differed in many ways from other types of patents.
But the sheer idiocy behind some of the patents granted I've seen recently is slowly turning my opinion around. I am starting to believe that patents are just a bad idea, period. They do not protect the "little guy"; instead they are horded by large corporations. And, really, if an idea is truly good, you should be able to make money actually producing the product or service it covers. True, someone else could do the same, but if the idea truly is unique and non-obvious, you should still have a leg up for a while.
It's just getting to the point, I'm afraid, where the negative effects of patents are beginning to outweigh the positives.
If eliminating patents all together is too radical a solution, perhaps some reform of the patent system is in order; patent length could be shortened, competent patent examiners could be hired, a limit on the number of patents per individual/organization could be instituted, etc.
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I don't. I want to hear about this stuff. I want others to hear about it, too. I want something done about these ridiculous patents.
The problem isn't that articles about stupid patents are being posted on Slashdot; the problem is that the patents are being granted.
Something needs to be done to stop these patents, and fast!
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The whole patent system is increasing resembling the Slashdot "First Post" phenomenon. It's not about ingenuity, invention or originality. It's just about being the first to submit something.
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Yes. Now I remember.
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I think you're talking about GABBO!
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Try it. Go ahead, select some text in XEmacs, click outside the selected region to deselect, then middle-click to paste. Wa la.
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I say that because the original poster was talking about ratios of customer profits as if the more copies out there, the more costs were being incurred by the vendor. That's clearly not the case; the only costs they really incur are from support. Thus, I claim, that what you are *really* buying from the proprietary vendors is, in fact, support.
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