Partially. I think it is the combination of commercialism and lack of attention from friends and more importantly family. Parents tend to leave their kids watching tv or playing computer games instead of playing with their kids or helping their kids do their homework. So I think when kids learn how messed up the world is, things most parents probably ignore or have never read about (not in popular media) it makes them feel powerless, frustrated, and perhaps hostile towards innocent, and probably ignornat, people around them. ( I've felt inclined to kill people, but it doesn't mean I'd act on it. Just stay away from malls if you fear for your life.:)
Actually it is impossible for a monopoly to control Linux or any other GPL software. The GPL is written in such a way to prevent this from ever happenning. In order for Linux to become a monopoly you would have to have every one of the 6 billion people on earth refuse to download source and compile and redistribute it. And all of those separate GPL projects to instantly halt their work and stop distributing binaries from places like sourceforge and freshmeat. For something like that to happen we would be talking about the destruction of the internet or Americanisation of every person on earth (making people stupid one commercial at a time). See linux is a truely free market. So do what you want, just remember to give back to the community, because that is what it is all really about. Money is worthless.
Don't believe me? Look at what linux has accomplished in the last few years. Do you honestly think that has anything to do with money? It is the hard work of hundreds or thousands of developers, users, sys admins, and now finally the old school management and marketting types (because it is where the money will be). Unfortunately for the old school management and marketting types are finding it hard playing in a free market without walls of IP or legalese to protect them. But that's not my problem. I just hope one day these people will reallize that life is the only thing of value in our world.
I think US laws are designed to protect the government and corporations from invasion of their privacy as they make laws and create propoganda to control American's lives.
Exactly, but since they didn't they have half the linux community foaming at the mouth at Adobe accusing them of being an evil corporation, supporting the UCITA, etc, etc. Hopefully this in turn will lead to a decrease in sales for Adobe and definitely keep them out of the linux market.
Yeah, I'm kinda a prima donna, cept I can work in a team and I'm not a programmer. I'm a sys admin. But I can write code too, or do just about anything else you want. I'm not a crack programmer yet, mostly because of the drugs, but if I put my mind to it I could make Sr. in a few months. The funny thing is management finds it hard to fire people like myself because we do most of the work and everyone around us knows it. (I personally don't do most of the work, but that's because I'm lazy and take advantage of the situation:) In previous positions I managed obscure code and knew pieces of the company nobody else knew, because nobody else went out of their way to automate their job.
For you managers out there. If these prima donnas are anything like me, firing them may break key components of your business model and cost you much more than their annual salery. But I'm sure they'll get a good laugh out of it when they find another job at a 30%-50% pay increase. EVERYBODY needs technically competent employees. Most employees are NOT technically competent and are not worth your money. But then again you keep most of it anyway, so what do you care?
I mostly agree with you. But there is a point when techies learn enough to be useful in more than one area of the computer industry. This is when they become engineers. Like engineers in other fields, these people learn that in order to accomplish any task you simply need to learn the concepts, review designs, implement one of your own and make it work. Just do it comes to mind.
When people reach this point I tend to think of them as technically competent. There is no task they can not accomplish, although often there are other people more skilled in doing specific tasks. But on the average they are much more productive that your typical computer illiterate user because they handle all their own problems and know how to solve most any roadblocks they run into.
Similarly if you put a computer illiterate engineer in front of a computer he'd read the manual and start using it. You wouldn't have to send them to training or give them some dumbed down OS to allow them to work. And probably within a few months they'd be telling you where the inefficiencies lie in your OS and apps.
Unfortunately I find that most managers are not this type of person. Which leads to conflicts when the engineer, who read the manual, points out mistakes in the managers decisions. Who is in the wrong in this situation, or is the engineer simply egotistical?
How could Linus have made anything competing with MS, Sun, SGI, HP, IBM, SCO, BSD, etc. There are many flavors of unix available. Now Linus is an excellent programmer, but without the GPL Linux would be no where close to where it is today, look at minix or whatever its called. And Linus has probably made more money because of the GPL than anything, although I don't know how wealthy Linus is. However he doesn't seem to be living in poverty.
But the best thing is if Linus was to ever fall into poverty and asked the linux community for cash I'd pay him directly because I love him. And I hope you do too.:)
That '99 task doesn't look all that hard. And I'm a sys admin. I probably wouldn't get anywhere near winning, but I thought you were talking about something like writing a small real-time micro kernel or things way out of my league. If their prima donna can't win THAT content he must truely suck ass.:)
What if you made a payment system that didn't invade anyone's privacy, didn't require payment, but instead merely suggested it, and was completely customizable by the consumer to suggest that they pay as much as they feel they should. That way the consumer is always right and they have full control. Then they won't feel like they are being taken advantage of. Do you EVER think a payment system like that will appear on a commercial site? I don't.
I would be happy to pay artists for content that I consider art. But the RIAA/MPAA don't want to pay artists anymore than we want to pay their execs. They would prefer to tell us that something is art and have us pay them for it and use that trickle down excuse as to why the artists are starving. If you disagree does that mean you believe NSync's art is better than Mozart? It certainly costs more for an Nsync CD.
For starters that's a good arguement. But I'm a beginning artist. I don't have any great content yet, but eventually if I work at it long enough I will probably make something that someone would like. Now I'm willing to pay for the limitted bandwidth required to send my art around the world. That costs me around $50/mo for broadband cable. If everyone wanted my content I would make it free to distribute so they could get as much as they want over P2P networks and save my bandwidth. These models cost us artists almost nothing, relatively. And it costs the consumers a few cents for the bandwidth they pay their ISPs for. Now taking this into consideration how much do you think consumers should pay to download content? AOL thinks they should pay by the hour. Napster wants a subscription service. But honestly, who do you think gets the money? The content creators / artists, or the big execs pushing for these payment systems?
An open and free payment system would allow the consumer to pay the artist directly how much the consumer feels the art is worth. Do you think execs would ever implement a system to allow you to pay artists directly? Its not beyond their capabilities you know. Think about this before you write stupid articles. I won't pay greedy execs for content they didn't create.
Actually this is true. We spend somewhere around $350 billion on the millitary budget, not including the extra $50 million bush gave them for the spy plane the China forced us to dismantel. Why are we paying $50 million extra for a freakin' spy plane we could care less about? Although I bet the money NASA gets would be better spent on education. NASA wastes tones of cash because it doesn't have a clue. Unfortunately with our education system the kids growing up today won't be able to replace NASA, they'll simply fill seats and file papers like everyone else. At least they can crash cheap stuff on Mars now. That puts a big smile on my face.
Management chooses to use M$ products because that's the standard and most software companies write software for windows so they have to have windows systems to test on. However, it would be just as easy to hire linux/UNIX admins, install a bunch of linux PCs which will cost you less than relicensing M$ crap every couple years. And force the users to use UNIX. This is what is already happenning, but these things take time. Eventually there will be enough driving force behind linux in the desktop market to afford the developement funding for koffice or whatever your favorite office application is.
But if these companies, instead of upgrading to XP, would simply put their money into their favorite GNU software they would have solid stable applications in no time that would never cost them another relicensing fee and will always be backwardly compatible. As soon as they understand that there will be no need to write anymore articles about M$.
No, I don't want to read them. I wish your irresponsible journalists would grow up for a change. This is boring irrelevant news that nobody cares about. Its only purpose for being here is to cause a flame war.
I'm thinking of emigrating too. But I can tell you one thing. I would DEFEND myself with my GUN. I refuse to recognise laws that are copyrighted by corporations or that I believe are against my constitutional rights (laws I have read and abide by). If the government wishes to take action against me for laws I do not recognise they can expect me to defend my rights with my gun until they pry it from my cold dead fingers. I only regret I have but one life to give.
How, exactly, does Mr. Kats embarrase you? And I can't see how you can claim Mr. Kats ignorance when you compare The Mummy Returns to an impressionistic painting.
I could not consider The Mummey Returns as anything comparable to art. It is fluff. Lots of hollywood fluff that cost lots of money to make because the top few execs walked out with it in their pockets. This sort of thing is sad. I'd much prefer a documentary on ancient Egypt with that amount of money spent on realistic CGI showing historic battles or monuments. Instead hollywood wastes it for Fun. This is known throughout the world as an Americanism. And it is exactly why Katz is writing a bad review of the Mummy. And as you said,
If you do not like it, it is your taste, not the fault of a truly successful (as far as intent) movie.
I would argue that it is not the fault of a truly successful (as far as economically viable) movie. See hollywood has one goal in mind, to make money. The content they will shove down your throat (I mean sell you) is nothing but hyped garbage. No plot, no character developement. Just CGI. Why? Because you continue paying for it and call it Fun. You're so gullible. Got some beach front property in Az... interrested?:)
Perhaps Jon expected this movie to be a bit more than a hollywood film. I'd suggest watching an indi film if you want a plot.
But your reaction to his comments on a movie he clearly did not like (probably because it was a useless waste of time that could have been spent outside or doing something better in reality) strikes a nerve. I wonder if you take the same sort of care-free attitude when it comes to politics, war, media and the like. You probably could care less about things you have no power in changing... which is why you have no power to change them. That's too bad for the rest of us.
exactly, or at least read they can source and know what the program does before they run it, etc. I think you just became my personal hero. This is the best arguement I've heard concerning the UCITA to date. Mod parent up, please!
But we live in a world where M$s make the laws. Doubtful they'll make a law that isn't profitable for them, or at least in their best interrests.
Slashdot Mirror
Partially. I think it is the combination of commercialism and lack of attention from friends and more importantly family. Parents tend to leave their kids watching tv or playing computer games instead of playing with their kids or helping their kids do their homework. So I think when kids learn how messed up the world is, things most parents probably ignore or have never read about (not in popular media) it makes them feel powerless, frustrated, and perhaps hostile towards innocent, and probably ignornat, people around them. ( I've felt inclined to kill people, but it doesn't mean I'd act on it. Just stay away from malls if you fear for your life. :)
Actually it is impossible for a monopoly to control Linux or any other GPL software. The GPL is written in such a way to prevent this from ever happenning. In order for Linux to become a monopoly you would have to have every one of the 6 billion people on earth refuse to download source and compile and redistribute it. And all of those separate GPL projects to instantly halt their work and stop distributing binaries from places like sourceforge and freshmeat. For something like that to happen we would be talking about the destruction of the internet or Americanisation of every person on earth (making people stupid one commercial at a time). See linux is a truely free market. So do what you want, just remember to give back to the community, because that is what it is all really about. Money is worthless.
Don't believe me? Look at what linux has accomplished in the last few years. Do you honestly think that has anything to do with money? It is the hard work of hundreds or thousands of developers, users, sys admins, and now finally the old school management and marketting types (because it is where the money will be). Unfortunately for the old school management and marketting types are finding it hard playing in a free market without walls of IP or legalese to protect them. But that's not my problem. I just hope one day these people will reallize that life is the only thing of value in our world.
Oh yeah, that's right. You have to be an American to have rights.
What's the matter? That damned first amendment getting in Adobe's way again? Just call the FBI!
And love your neighbor, even if he cranks his 110db subwoofer at 2AM.
I think US laws are designed to protect the government and corporations from invasion of their privacy as they make laws and create propoganda to control American's lives.
The US, what a fun place to live.
or...
"MSNBC told me Microsoft created this new revolutionary audio technology, WMA, so this should be good."
I love corporate control of our media, schools and government.
Exactly, but since they didn't they have half the linux community foaming at the mouth at Adobe accusing them of being an evil corporation, supporting the UCITA, etc, etc. Hopefully this in turn will lead to a decrease in sales for Adobe and definitely keep them out of the linux market.
Yeah, I'm kinda a prima donna, cept I can work in a team and I'm not a programmer. I'm a sys admin. But I can write code too, or do just about anything else you want. I'm not a crack programmer yet, mostly because of the drugs, but if I put my mind to it I could make Sr. in a few months. The funny thing is management finds it hard to fire people like myself because we do most of the work and everyone around us knows it. (I personally don't do most of the work, but that's because I'm lazy and take advantage of the situation
For you managers out there. If these prima donnas are anything like me, firing them may break key components of your business model and cost you much more than their annual salery. But I'm sure they'll get a good laugh out of it when they find another job at a 30%-50% pay increase. EVERYBODY needs technically competent employees. Most employees are NOT technically competent and are not worth your money. But then again you keep most of it anyway, so what do you care?
Haha, that's great! I tend to dispise upper-management and let them know how messed up they are every chance I get. But I work for a monopoly. :P
I mostly agree with you. But there is a point when techies learn enough to be useful in more than one area of the computer industry. This is when they become engineers. Like engineers in other fields, these people learn that in order to accomplish any task you simply need to learn the concepts, review designs, implement one of your own and make it work. Just do it comes to mind.
When people reach this point I tend to think of them as technically competent. There is no task they can not accomplish, although often there are other people more skilled in doing specific tasks. But on the average they are much more productive that your typical computer illiterate user because they handle all their own problems and know how to solve most any roadblocks they run into.
Similarly if you put a computer illiterate engineer in front of a computer he'd read the manual and start using it. You wouldn't have to send them to training or give them some dumbed down OS to allow them to work. And probably within a few months they'd be telling you where the inefficiencies lie in your OS and apps.
Unfortunately I find that most managers are not this type of person. Which leads to conflicts when the engineer, who read the manual, points out mistakes in the managers decisions. Who is in the wrong in this situation, or is the engineer simply egotistical?
How could Linus have made anything competing with MS, Sun, SGI, HP, IBM, SCO, BSD, etc. There are many flavors of unix available. Now Linus is an excellent programmer, but without the GPL Linux would be no where close to where it is today, look at minix or whatever its called. And Linus has probably made more money because of the GPL than anything, although I don't know how wealthy Linus is. However he doesn't seem to be living in poverty.
But the best thing is if Linus was to ever fall into poverty and asked the linux community for cash I'd pay him directly because I love him. And I hope you do too.
That '99 task doesn't look all that hard. And I'm a sys admin. I probably wouldn't get anywhere near winning, but I thought you were talking about something like writing a small real-time micro kernel or things way out of my league. If their prima donna can't win THAT content he must truely suck ass.
Just my $.02
What if you made a payment system that didn't invade anyone's privacy, didn't require payment, but instead merely suggested it, and was completely customizable by the consumer to suggest that they pay as much as they feel they should. That way the consumer is always right and they have full control. Then they won't feel like they are being taken advantage of. Do you EVER think a payment system like that will appear on a commercial site? I don't.
I would be happy to pay artists for content that I consider art. But the RIAA/MPAA don't want to pay artists anymore than we want to pay their execs. They would prefer to tell us that something is art and have us pay them for it and use that trickle down excuse as to why the artists are starving. If you disagree does that mean you believe NSync's art is better than Mozart? It certainly costs more for an Nsync CD.
For starters that's a good arguement. But I'm a beginning artist. I don't have any great content yet, but eventually if I work at it long enough I will probably make something that someone would like. Now I'm willing to pay for the limitted bandwidth required to send my art around the world. That costs me around $50/mo for broadband cable. If everyone wanted my content I would make it free to distribute so they could get as much as they want over P2P networks and save my bandwidth. These models cost us artists almost nothing, relatively. And it costs the consumers a few cents for the bandwidth they pay their ISPs for. Now taking this into consideration how much do you think consumers should pay to download content? AOL thinks they should pay by the hour. Napster wants a subscription service. But honestly, who do you think gets the money? The content creators / artists, or the big execs pushing for these payment systems?
An open and free payment system would allow the consumer to pay the artist directly how much the consumer feels the art is worth. Do you think execs would ever implement a system to allow you to pay artists directly? Its not beyond their capabilities you know. Think about this before you write stupid articles. I won't pay greedy execs for content they didn't create.
Actually this is true. We spend somewhere around $350 billion on the millitary budget, not including the extra $50 million bush gave them for the spy plane the China forced us to dismantel. Why are we paying $50 million extra for a freakin' spy plane we could care less about? Although I bet the money NASA gets would be better spent on education. NASA wastes tones of cash because it doesn't have a clue. Unfortunately with our education system the kids growing up today won't be able to replace NASA, they'll simply fill seats and file papers like everyone else. At least they can crash cheap stuff on Mars now. That puts a big smile on my face.
Management chooses to use M$ products because that's the standard and most software companies write software for windows so they have to have windows systems to test on. However, it would be just as easy to hire linux/UNIX admins, install a bunch of linux PCs which will cost you less than relicensing M$ crap every couple years. And force the users to use UNIX. This is what is already happenning, but these things take time. Eventually there will be enough driving force behind linux in the desktop market to afford the developement funding for koffice or whatever your favorite office application is.
But if these companies, instead of upgrading to XP, would simply put their money into their favorite GNU software they would have solid stable applications in no time that would never cost them another relicensing fee and will always be backwardly compatible. As soon as they understand that there will be no need to write anymore articles about M$.
No, I don't want to read them. I wish your irresponsible journalists would grow up for a change. This is boring irrelevant news that nobody cares about. Its only purpose for being here is to cause a flame war.
I'm thinking of emigrating too. But I can tell you one thing. I would DEFEND myself with my GUN. I refuse to recognise laws that are copyrighted by corporations or that I believe are against my constitutional rights (laws I have read and abide by). If the government wishes to take action against me for laws I do not recognise they can expect me to defend my rights with my gun until they pry it from my cold dead fingers. I only regret I have but one life to give.
I'm beginning to think they are all flamebait articles these days. *sigh* Corporate interrests suck.
Good point! I did love the matrix. But only because I saw it the first time on acid. ;)
At least it doesn't plug into .NET. :)
How, exactly, does Mr. Kats embarrase you? And I can't see how you can claim Mr. Kats ignorance when you compare The Mummy Returns to an impressionistic painting.
I could not consider The Mummey Returns as anything comparable to art. It is fluff. Lots of hollywood fluff that cost lots of money to make because the top few execs walked out with it in their pockets. This sort of thing is sad. I'd much prefer a documentary on ancient Egypt with that amount of money spent on realistic CGI showing historic battles or monuments. Instead hollywood wastes it for Fun. This is known throughout the world as an Americanism. And it is exactly why Katz is writing a bad review of the Mummy. And as you said,
If you do not like it, it is your taste, not the fault of a truly successful (as far as intent) movie.
I would argue that it is not the fault of a truly successful (as far as economically viable) movie. See hollywood has one goal in mind, to make money. The content they will shove down your throat (I mean sell you) is nothing but hyped garbage. No plot, no character developement. Just CGI. Why? Because you continue paying for it and call it Fun. You're so gullible. Got some beach front property in Az... interrested?
Perhaps Jon expected this movie to be a bit more than a hollywood film. I'd suggest watching an indi film if you want a plot.
But your reaction to his comments on a movie he clearly did not like (probably because it was a useless waste of time that could have been spent outside or doing something better in reality) strikes a nerve. I wonder if you take the same sort of care-free attitude when it comes to politics, war, media and the like. You probably could care less about things you have no power in changing... which is why you have no power to change them. That's too bad for the rest of us.
exactly, or at least read they can source and know what the program does before they run it, etc. I think you just became my personal hero. This is the best arguement I've heard concerning the UCITA to date. Mod parent up, please!
But we live in a world where M$s make the laws. Doubtful they'll make a law that isn't profitable for them, or at least in their best interrests.
laugh, cry, kill, die.