Err, nevermind, you meant openmoko.org itself. Read the mailing lists, and you'll see that real phones have been shipped, and there are hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of active community members.
Why don't you stop and think for a second about how you're going to get a machine from Tiger Direct into Venezuela? All of a sudden, it's not so cheap anymore.
You reading comprehension is severely deficient - I'm pretty sure you just repeated the parent's point. That being said, he's probably not all that bad. The US government just hates him because he's acting in Venezuela's interests, at the expense of foreign (US) interests.
At this point, we should tell you why we chose the name "Neo1973."
"Neo" means new. Dr. Marty Cooper (the inventor of the mobile phone)
made the first call ever in 1973.
We believe that an open source mobile phone can revolutionize, once
again, the world of communication. This will be the New 1973.
This device is far more deserving of any such hype. It has bluetooth, a GPS receiver, wifi, twice as many pixels on its touchscreen, and it runs on an entirely free platform (which is thus open for third party devevlopment). All of this for $350, with no service contract.
For the purpose of this discussion, there are two kinds of developers, the initial authors that pick the license, and the developers reusing that code under license. The second kind obviously would prefer to have as much freedom as possible to do what they want with the code, so if they got to choose, the license would be more permissive. On the other hand, the first group may not want the second group to take their code and sell it, or deploy it on a device like Tivo, so the GPLv3 might be exactly what they want. You seem to be confusing these two groups, since it's only the second group that is getting screwed.
Indeed, the whole codec issue is overblown, in my opinion. If you're running on an IA-32 CPU, then it's actually easier to get everything working on Ubuntu than on Windows. It just seems that most people aren't aware of this, or where to find instructions on how to get everything working. Everything that is needed is in Ubuntu's repositories, except for the w32codecs package, which contains some stuff that isn't implemented in open source code, like real, and a bunch of obscure codecs that only (I think) have Windows implementations.
You shouldn't have bought media that requires DRM in the first place. Plus, you're helping decision makers justify continuing to require DRM on the products they sell. If I actually cared about the ability to legally buy music, movies, and TV shows, I'd be kind of miffed about people like you, but I can afford to be patient about it, since I wasn't going to be buying anything anyway.
There's a number of problems it brings up, like privacy issues. Like I said, it's not necessarily a good thing. In this case, though, the user can start building their reputation on sites that allow new users to participate until they "level up", eventually gaining access to other parts of the internet. Thus, web 2.0 will be unwittingly turned into some sort of dystopian MMORPG. Seriously though, that would work, because plenty of places, like/., would allow users to participate even if they don't have a reputation.
Regardless of what kind of eBay seller you'd be, this system would let people shun you for being an asshat somewhere if you used an important identity to be an asshat with. This would relegate most asshattery to anonymous identities, which would mean that sites that want to eliminate asshattery would simply require that all participation come from an identity with a decent reputation. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not.
Remind me, who won the last election? Oh yes, that's right, a government full of incompetent hypocrites that had a record of lying habitually. I think the evidence speaks for itself.
You insensitive clod, beyond the rudeness of your post, did you even stop to think of the possibility that the original poster's first language isn't necessarily English? Ignorance does not imply idiocy, and comments such as yours do much more harm than good.
Nobody is being forced to do anything, people are making their own decisions based on the new situation that results from higher gas prices. The ability to purchase gas at the prices it was being sold for ten years ago is not a right. If current prices cause people to reduce the amount of gasoline they waste on things like driving back and forth every day, I consider that to be progress.
I argue that there are many people that could telecommute, but they haven't started to, either because they need an excuse before their employers will let them, or because they themselves haven't given serious consideration to the idea. What I'm saying is that if higher gas prices cause telecommuting to become significantly more popular, that's a positive thing, and I welcome it. Potential benefits include reductions in demand for:
land in the area such people are employed in.
road usage in the same areas
gasoline, car maintenance
wasted commute time for the people telecommuting
These things benefit everyone in the surrounding area, even those who don't telecommute, by reducing traffic and land usage in densely populated areas. My enthusiasm about these benefits in efficiency doesn't translate into a desire for high gas prices to harm others. I just think that if progress results from high gas prices, that is more important than the short term expense everyone is incurring from their current dependency on gas. This also means that I wouldn't think that further increases would be a good thing, they wouldn't have the same positive effect of getting people to think about gas consumption.
It's not inflation if it's caused by higher gas prices. In any case, this means that higher gas prices encourage people to minimize the distance that they transport goods. As much as I feel sorry for truck drivers right now, I'm glad people have an incentive to change.
I'll support these outrageous gas prices if they're finally high enough to make people rethink their horribly inefficient daily commutes. I find it wrong that there is such a huge flow of cars going back and forth every single day.
Slashdot Mirror
Err, nevermind, you meant openmoko.org itself. Read the mailing lists, and you'll see that real phones have been shipped, and there are hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of active community members.
Oh, I'm sorry, you couldn't figure out whether or not that blog is real, so obviously it must be a fake. See http://planet.openmoko.org/
Why don't you stop and think for a second about how you're going to get a machine from Tiger Direct into Venezuela? All of a sudden, it's not so cheap anymore.
You reading comprehension is severely deficient - I'm pretty sure you just repeated the parent's point. That being said, he's probably not all that bad. The US government just hates him because he's acting in Venezuela's interests, at the expense of foreign (US) interests.
Duke Nukem Forever is vaporware. Though it is late, the Neo1973 is certainly not vaporware. See http://gnumonks.org/~laforge/weblog/2007/06/15/
This device is far more deserving of any such hype. It has bluetooth, a GPS receiver, wifi, twice as many pixels on its touchscreen, and it runs on an entirely free platform (which is thus open for third party devevlopment). All of this for $350, with no service contract.
Of course! If we stop recognizing software patents, then the terrorists win.
For the purpose of this discussion, there are two kinds of developers, the initial authors that pick the license, and the developers reusing that code under license. The second kind obviously would prefer to have as much freedom as possible to do what they want with the code, so if they got to choose, the license would be more permissive. On the other hand, the first group may not want the second group to take their code and sell it, or deploy it on a device like Tivo, so the GPLv3 might be exactly what they want. You seem to be confusing these two groups, since it's only the second group that is getting screwed.
You may not be able to imagine it, but the US Navy has realized it!
Indeed, the whole codec issue is overblown, in my opinion. If you're running on an IA-32 CPU, then it's actually easier to get everything working on Ubuntu than on Windows. It just seems that most people aren't aware of this, or where to find instructions on how to get everything working. Everything that is needed is in Ubuntu's repositories, except for the w32codecs package, which contains some stuff that isn't implemented in open source code, like real, and a bunch of obscure codecs that only (I think) have Windows implementations.
You shouldn't have bought media that requires DRM in the first place. Plus, you're helping decision makers justify continuing to require DRM on the products they sell. If I actually cared about the ability to legally buy music, movies, and TV shows, I'd be kind of miffed about people like you, but I can afford to be patient about it, since I wasn't going to be buying anything anyway.
Wtf, since when is that a hallmark of being female? Or are you just another one of these paid trolls you speak of?
There's a number of problems it brings up, like privacy issues. Like I said, it's not necessarily a good thing. In this case, though, the user can start building their reputation on sites that allow new users to participate until they "level up", eventually gaining access to other parts of the internet. Thus, web 2.0 will be unwittingly turned into some sort of dystopian MMORPG. Seriously though, that would work, because plenty of places, like /., would allow users to participate even if they don't have a reputation.
Regardless of what kind of eBay seller you'd be, this system would let people shun you for being an asshat somewhere if you used an important identity to be an asshat with. This would relegate most asshattery to anonymous identities, which would mean that sites that want to eliminate asshattery would simply require that all participation come from an identity with a decent reputation. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not.
I meant the last presidential elections.
Remind me, who won the last election? Oh yes, that's right, a government full of incompetent hypocrites that had a record of lying habitually. I think the evidence speaks for itself.
Normally, I'd be inclined to dismiss this tactic, but hey, if it works for the attorney general of the US...
If this isn't advertising, I don't know what is.
You insensitive clod, beyond the rudeness of your post, did you even stop to think of the possibility that the original poster's first language isn't necessarily English? Ignorance does not imply idiocy, and comments such as yours do much more harm than good.
Nobody is being forced to do anything, people are making their own decisions based on the new situation that results from higher gas prices. The ability to purchase gas at the prices it was being sold for ten years ago is not a right. If current prices cause people to reduce the amount of gasoline they waste on things like driving back and forth every day, I consider that to be progress.
I argue that there are many people that could telecommute, but they haven't started to, either because they need an excuse before their employers will let them, or because they themselves haven't given serious consideration to the idea. What I'm saying is that if higher gas prices cause telecommuting to become significantly more popular, that's a positive thing, and I welcome it. Potential benefits include reductions in demand for:
These things benefit everyone in the surrounding area, even those who don't telecommute, by reducing traffic and land usage in densely populated areas. My enthusiasm about these benefits in efficiency doesn't translate into a desire for high gas prices to harm others. I just think that if progress results from high gas prices, that is more important than the short term expense everyone is incurring from their current dependency on gas. This also means that I wouldn't think that further increases would be a good thing, they wouldn't have the same positive effect of getting people to think about gas consumption.
It's not inflation if it's caused by higher gas prices. In any case, this means that higher gas prices encourage people to minimize the distance that they transport goods. As much as I feel sorry for truck drivers right now, I'm glad people have an incentive to change.
I'll support these outrageous gas prices if they're finally high enough to make people rethink their horribly inefficient daily commutes. I find it wrong that there is such a huge flow of cars going back and forth every single day.
Ticket revenue doesn't go directly to the person issuing the fine, hence the opportunity for bribes to take place.