While I agree there are plenty of examples of herd-thinking on/. I also think there are some legitimate criticisms of Apple being made (albeit repeatedly). I think criticism of the "walled-garden" is legitimate, for example. You will also find many people talking about MacOS as the best/most-secure OS out there too -- as another poster said, it cuts both ways.
I don't want to defend Sharon's actions too much -- I think Israel has done some terrible things. Having said that, I think you should read a bit about the creation of Israel. There's been a lot of fault on both sides -- had they been able to, the Palestinians would have wiped Israel off the map decades ago.
Are ideas not property? If you really think that, then why is it not ok for a programmer at a company to take all that company's code and sell it to a competitor? The first company is not being deprived of anything, right?
Imagine the consequences for the coders-for-hire on/. if this were really the case! (hint: they wouldn't be better-off!)
It might make economic sense to buy a new more efficient computer to make savings on your electricity bills, but it's probably still worse environmentally. The amount of power and water used in the manufacture of an average PC is large, and is a cost that is not truly passed-on to the purchaser. I'm not saying don't buy new PCs because of this, just don't do it thinking it's better for the environment.
"Gartner maintains that the PC manufacturing process accounts for 70 % of the natural resources used in the life cycle of a PC" from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_computing
(similarly, buying a new Prius and claiming you're "doing your bit" for the environment is not true, unless you had to buy a new car anyway.)
Interesting you should say that. My experience on Ubuntu is that Firefox is _much_ more stable than Chrome. I've not noticed a speed difference, but I have noticed that Chrome seems to use much more RAM. If Ubuntu ever switched to Chromium as default, I'd still be installing Firefox! I don't mind Chrome -- in fact, it's probably the 2nd best browser IMO (followed by Safari, then Opera, then, distantly, IE6*)
And as for Thunderbird stagnating..? Have you used Thunderbird 3?!? It rocks! I reckon it's a great email client!
I'm not an expert on ancient history, but I don't agree with your interpretation -- although in broad strokes your facts are correct.
My understanding (someone correct me?) is that the Athenians offered him a choice between 1. admitting that he was in the wrong and then being exiled for life, or 2. drinking hemlock - had he not drunk it himself, he would have been forced Socrates stood by his principles* and demanded that the city acknowledge its debt to him, and said that he would never agree to what they wanted. Hence, he was forced to drink the hemlock.
*as another poster has already mentioned, this account is (I believe) largely based on Plato's writings. Historians in ancient times were not overly concerned with accurately representing events in an objective manner (for example, Tacitus has some fantastic quotes from Generals on the Roman frontier in Germania - someone must have passed him a recording!:-P), so we need to take Plato's account with a grain of salt. However, I suspect your interpretation is not really accurate either (maybe you can give some references?)
Err, did you actually read what they wrote? There is a difference between saying "ACTA is teh evil" and providing a convincing reasoned argument about why it is undesirable.
It's sad that even on a site like/. there's such disdain for people's expertise... (or were you cross-posting from your MySpace blog?)
I'm not a US resident nor citizen, but I'm always wary of simple solutions to complex problems.
For example, you're talking about establishing a state-backed (underwritten?) competitor to the insurance industry and using that to fund medical expenses. While I think that is a good thing, I'm sure that the existing insurers wouldn't, and would fight it tooth and nail. Similarly, there are other entrenched interests (ie. private hospitals) that are doing pretty well with the status quo. I think that, for your plan to work, you'd also have to establish how you would alter the US's current trajectory to this new (excellent sounding) trajectory.
Sorry to sound negative, because I basically like what you're saying, but I doubt you can just flick a switch and make all this happen...
There could be Uranium though... I wonder if people would object to a nuclear power station on the moon, sending energy to Earth via microwave... gets rid of the waste problem! (though the moon isn't geostationary, of course..)
"Picasa is free (and awesome) but not open source - so Ubuntu and Fedora will never ship it."
I haven't looked at Picasa's license, but would Ubuntu/Fedora actually be _allowed_ to distribute it? I'm doubtful... On a side note, I think that Digikam craps all over Picasa...
What would that actually achieve? Surely any foreign lobbyist would simply establish/find a US proxy to funnel the donations? Seems to me that other posters have made better suggestions -- ban lobbying altogether.
Forget all that - how can an iPad replace a general-purpose PC (whether it runs Win, Lin or Mac) when you can't even install what software you want? You can't even easily transfer files, for gods' sake!
The "interest groups" they are referring to are in _support_ of the 18+ category. Reading comprehension, mate!
(I do think it amusing that the pollies have basically come out and said: "we're delaying the implementation of this policy, because the public response has been too positive";-)
"No two web browsers will render HTML the same way. And its as open a spec as it can be. You've said exactly the same of two word processors." That is true, and I concede that my statement about "exact" reproduction is wrong.
However, the web is transient and fluid. Office documents are not (or shouldn't be). Hence, I think it's fair to apply a stricter standard to office documents with regards to standards compliance. I think a more appropriate example is PDF -- how much variation is there between PDF renderers?
If you were not astroturfing, then please accept my apology regarding the final statement. I stand by the rest of my comments.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe this is part of your point, but who's the "enlightened world" -- the US or Brazil?
"/dev/null" -- that sounds suspiciously Unix-like... Are you sure you didn't rip that off?
Well, if you get your internet from Telstra, you deserve what you get :-P
While I agree there are plenty of examples of herd-thinking on /. I also think there are some legitimate criticisms of Apple being made (albeit repeatedly). I think criticism of the "walled-garden" is legitimate, for example. You will also find many people talking about MacOS as the best/most-secure OS out there too -- as another poster said, it cuts both ways.
Heh, where are these "young, hip developers"? I've never heard of this species before!
The old adage "measure twice, cut once" springs to mind. :-)
I don't want to defend Sharon's actions too much -- I think Israel has done some terrible things. Having said that, I think you should read a bit about the creation of Israel. There's been a lot of fault on both sides -- had they been able to, the Palestinians would have wiped Israel off the map decades ago.
Are ideas not property? If you really think that, then why is it not ok for a programmer at a company to take all that company's code and sell it to a competitor? The first company is not being deprived of anything, right?
Imagine the consequences for the coders-for-hire on /. if this were really the case!
(hint: they wouldn't be better-off!)
It might make economic sense to buy a new more efficient computer to make savings on your electricity bills, but it's probably still worse environmentally. The amount of power and water used in the manufacture of an average PC is large, and is a cost that is not truly passed-on to the purchaser.
I'm not saying don't buy new PCs because of this, just don't do it thinking it's better for the environment.
"Gartner maintains that the PC manufacturing process accounts for 70 % of the natural resources used in the life cycle of a PC"
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_computing
(similarly, buying a new Prius and claiming you're "doing your bit" for the environment is not true, unless you had to buy a new car anyway.)
>> running Ubuntu 8.10
your question is already answered.
Interesting you should say that. My experience on Ubuntu is that Firefox is _much_ more stable than Chrome. I've not noticed a speed difference, but I have noticed that Chrome seems to use much more RAM. If Ubuntu ever switched to Chromium as default, I'd still be installing Firefox! I don't mind Chrome -- in fact, it's probably the 2nd best browser IMO (followed by Safari, then Opera, then, distantly, IE6*)
And as for Thunderbird stagnating..? Have you used Thunderbird 3?!? It rocks! I reckon it's a great email client!
*I haven't used more recent versions of IE.
I'm not an expert on ancient history, but I don't agree with your interpretation -- although in broad strokes your facts are correct.
My understanding (someone correct me?) is that the Athenians offered him a choice between
1. admitting that he was in the wrong and then being exiled for life, or
2. drinking hemlock - had he not drunk it himself, he would have been forced
Socrates stood by his principles* and demanded that the city acknowledge its debt to him, and said that he would never agree to what they wanted. Hence, he was forced to drink the hemlock.
*as another poster has already mentioned, this account is (I believe) largely based on Plato's writings. Historians in ancient times were not overly concerned with accurately representing events in an objective manner (for example, Tacitus has some fantastic quotes from Generals on the Roman frontier in Germania - someone must have passed him a recording! :-P), so we need to take Plato's account with a grain of salt. However, I suspect your interpretation is not really accurate either (maybe you can give some references?)
Not forever, just three-score-and-ten
Err, did you actually read what they wrote? There is a difference between saying "ACTA is teh evil" and providing a convincing reasoned argument about why it is undesirable.
It's sad that even on a site like /. there's such disdain for people's expertise... (or were you cross-posting from your MySpace blog?)
I'm not a US resident nor citizen, but I'm always wary of simple solutions to complex problems.
For example, you're talking about establishing a state-backed (underwritten?) competitor to the insurance industry and using that to fund medical expenses. While I think that is a good thing, I'm sure that the existing insurers wouldn't, and would fight it tooth and nail. Similarly, there are other entrenched interests (ie. private hospitals) that are doing pretty well with the status quo. I think that, for your plan to work, you'd also have to establish how you would alter the US's current trajectory to this new (excellent sounding) trajectory.
Sorry to sound negative, because I basically like what you're saying, but I doubt you can just flick a switch and make all this happen...
There could be Uranium though... I wonder if people would object to a nuclear power station on the moon, sending energy to Earth via microwave... gets rid of the waste problem! (though the moon isn't geostationary, of course..)
"Picasa is free (and awesome) but not open source - so Ubuntu and Fedora will never ship it."
I haven't looked at Picasa's license, but would Ubuntu/Fedora actually be _allowed_ to distribute it? I'm doubtful...
On a side note, I think that Digikam craps all over Picasa...
What would that actually achieve? Surely any foreign lobbyist would simply establish/find a US proxy to funnel the donations? Seems to me that other posters have made better suggestions -- ban lobbying altogether.
Well, as long as the operating temperature is specified in the quote, I don't see a problem...
Forget all that - how can an iPad replace a general-purpose PC (whether it runs Win, Lin or Mac) when you can't even install what software you want? You can't even easily transfer files, for gods' sake!
...but according to the summary, China has "citizens" whereas the US has "consumers" -- interesting word choice!
I really liked this one:
http://xkcd.com/482/
Not particularly funny -- but very cool :-)
Particularly the way objects' vertical axis is mapped to log space also (eg the pyramids and Eiffel tower)
The "interest groups" they are referring to are in _support_ of the 18+ category. Reading comprehension, mate!
(I do think it amusing that the pollies have basically come out and said: "we're delaying the implementation of this policy, because the public response has been too positive" ;-)
"No two web browsers will render HTML the same way. And its as open a spec as it can be. You've said exactly the same of two word processors."
That is true, and I concede that my statement about "exact" reproduction is wrong.
However, the web is transient and fluid. Office documents are not (or shouldn't be). Hence, I think it's fair to apply a stricter standard to office documents with regards to standards compliance. I think a more appropriate example is PDF -- how much variation is there between PDF renderers?
If you were not astroturfing, then please accept my apology regarding the final statement. I stand by the rest of my comments.
"The scales are unimaginable to me, at both ends."
Yup -- doesn't maths rock? It allows our stupid ape-brains to grok deep truths! :-)