"should" is a weasel-word having no place in specs...
Evidently you've not read too many specifications, then, because it is absolutely nothing of the sort.
I think you'll find many, many specs not only use "should", "may", and other such words, they actually go to some lengths to provide precise (and useful) definitions for them before doing so.
(For those of you playing along at home: I've noticed that use of the term "weasel-word" is usually a cover for "I can't be arsed to do my homework, so I'll just parrot something I read on Wikipedia".)
...Even in truly anarchic societies people will develop conventions and standards, and they will be enforced, without formal leadership or guidance. E.g. Kowloon in Hong Kong.
I know a bit about Hong Kong, having been there several times, each time staying in Kowloon (Mong Kok, to be precise), and I have one simple question for you:
...Java was made open prior to Sunset, as was MySQL, otherwise they would either share the same coffin, or the new per-processor enterprise-only licence prices would make even Fortune-10 CXO's blink twice, roll their eyes and mutter 'damn!'
The parallel you're attempting to draw here is simply not valid. Timeline check, anyone...?
2000 - MySQL AB begins releasing MySQL under GPL v2. 2008 - MySQL AB is acquired by Sun.
MySQL was available under GPL for years before its acquisition by Sun (or by anybody else, for that matter) was even contemplated. So please don't try to make it sound as though Sun 'liberated' MySQL, because that's not the case at all.
IIRC, Sun started relicensing Java as OSS 4 or 5 years ago, also long before it acquired MySQL AB — or before Sun was itself acquired by Oracle, for that matter.
Perhaps you're tuning in to ancestral memories of what Netscape, Inc. did with their software when they saw the writing on the wall...?
Yes, this is a nice story. (Especially since we got Mozilla, Firefox, Thunderbird, Seamonkey, etc. out of the deal.) But it is *nothing* like the MySQL story or the Java story in relation to Sun (and later Oracle). Not even close.
Animations showing the correct stroke order for all simplified and many traditional characters
Pronunciation
Character decomposition
Create printable worksheets
Search characters phonetically or by components/radicals
The basic useful features are free. Didn't see a need to sign up as a paying member, although I might break down and buy a one-time sub just to show my support.
Requires EVIL proprietary binary blob urrh hurrh hurrh Flash urrh binary hurrh hurhh EVIL urrh -- Fuck that, it's a fantastic resource. DO check it out!
Dunno about other places, but here in Sweden it's quite easy (maybe too easy) to have things not directly related to your mobile phone service billed to your mobile phone account.
I've done this myself a couple of times when I've forgot my transport pass (or discovered that it just expired), needed to get someplace in a hurry, and got a one-trip ticket on the subway just by sending an SMS to the transport company.
It's also a chance to introduce the 'average user' (whatever that is) to the notion that software* does not have to be packaged on a physical object that you have to go to a store and buy.
*Real, useful software, like a reliable OS, not Weather Roach or Borzoi Buddy or some Pin The Tail On The Hedgehog game or what have you.
...I recommend you do it via the install DVD rather than the live CD.
I've been using openSUSE since 2004, and I can't remember the last time I did anything other than a network install. Why waste the bandwidth and media?
Come to think of it, the last few laptop installations I've done haven't even required the use of a network cable.
Actually, I live about half a block away from one of those cheap pizza places in Europe (Stockholm, to be exact). Little hole in the wall place. Run by Kurdish immigrants. Great (and dirt-cheap) pizzas, and their calzone are to die for. As good as some I've had in Italy.
So, no, I guess that I don't really know what you're talking about.:)
Come to Sweden, where I get 24Mbit up/3 down ADSL for 349 SEK/month (about US$50 or NZ$70).
This includes the phone line.
Oh, and did I mention the part where they answered my obvious question with one of their own: "What's a bandwidth cap?":)
In Oz, I paid AU$99 (US$90/NZ$120) a month for 3 Mbit up/1 down, 15GB cap, and the phone line ran me another AU$50/mo. (You can multiply by 1.5, right?) And that was with one of the better providers (Internode, IIRC).
I could do better if I lived in a suburb of Stockholm closer to the city centre where they've laid fibre.
Let me get this straight -- you're saying that the way to avoid to losing any control over our computers is... to give up all control over our computers?
I've got 3 Acer laptops, and bought the most recent one in May '09. Only problem I've had with this one is that I've not been able to figure out how to get the built-in webcam to work with OpenSUSE (so once every couple of weeks, I reboot into Vista for an hour or two so I can have a video call with my daughter, who lives with her mum in another country -- I can live with that, I guess). Everything else works a treat -- even did the Linux install using the wifi. That was pretty funny, actually -- started the installer, then realised I didn't have a network cable plugged in, and after scrabbling round in a panic to find one, I got back to my desk to see that it had Found the following wireless networks:......... Would you like to use one of these? [Y/N].
Nothing wrong with the 2 previous models, either -- got the second one about a year after the first because I needed a backup machine for travel as well as a 64-bit machine for work; got the latest because I wanted dual core, bigger screen, and more RAM.
So laugh if you want to, but Acer just keep coming out with the specs I'm after for the best price. I actually tried very hard this time round to find something else, but after about 3 or 4 weeks of looking, well... (See previous sentence).
I know some of my colleagues think I'm daft because I bought the most recent Acer at my own expense rather than let my employer pay for an "approved" portable from another vendor, but getting something that isn't what you want or need "for free" isn't very helpful or productive IMO. (There's also the reassuring fact that, should something happen with my job, the machine is mine.)
Back on topic: It's an Aspire 7530G, and according to the acer.com check of the serial number, it's not affected by this issue.
Speaking as someone who's made his living as a writer for the last 10+ years, I'd like to say that your comment is exactly what I'd expect from a knothead.
No problems playing my favourite Flash game using Chrome on 64-bit openSUSE 11.1. IIRC, all I had to do was copy libflashplayer.so to/opt/google/chrome/plugins, chown to root, and restart the browser for it to work.
(Would-be down-modders: If you don't want to play, then you don't have to follow the link, okay?)
Right, xkcd deliberately and maliciously aped the great and wonderful Simpsons just to annoy you to the point where you'd share that gemlike nugget of profound wisdom with us. Because anybody making a similar joke to one that happened to appear on the Simpsons must be doing so only in order to desecrate our precious bodily fluids as epitomized by the Simpsons, the font of all right and true humour!
In short, you're a tard. Kindly get over yourself, then FOAD.
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If I wanted to live in poverty in a failed state I'd move to ...
Alabama?
"should" is a weasel-word having no place in specs...
Evidently you've not read too many specifications, then, because it is absolutely nothing of the sort.
I think you'll find many, many specs not only use "should", "may", and other such words, they actually go to some lengths to provide precise (and useful) definitions for them before doing so.
(For those of you playing along at home: I've noticed that use of the term "weasel-word" is usually a cover for "I can't be arsed to do my homework, so I'll just parrot something I read on Wikipedia".)
Hell didn't want me so they sent me back.
Would have much more effective if you'd said, "... were afraid I'd take over."
With each passing year, he becomes more the prophet.
The real problem is that the PTB seem to think he wrote an operations manual, rather than a warning.
im not racist just hate illegals and socialists
And grammar.
And spelling.
And punctuation.
And logic.
AND NICE RED UNIFORMS!
...Even in truly anarchic societies people will develop conventions and standards, and they will be enforced, without formal leadership or guidance. E.g. Kowloon in Hong Kong.
I know a bit about Hong Kong, having been there several times, each time staying in Kowloon (Mong Kok, to be precise), and I have one simple question for you:
WTF are you going on about?
...Java was made open prior to Sunset, as was MySQL, otherwise they would either share the same coffin, or the new per-processor enterprise-only licence prices would make even Fortune-10 CXO's blink twice, roll their eyes and mutter 'damn!'
The parallel you're attempting to draw here is simply not valid. Timeline check, anyone...?
2000 - MySQL AB begins releasing MySQL under GPL v2.
2008 - MySQL AB is acquired by Sun.
MySQL was available under GPL for years before its acquisition by Sun (or by anybody else, for that matter) was even contemplated. So please don't try to make it sound as though Sun 'liberated' MySQL, because that's not the case at all.
IIRC, Sun started relicensing Java as OSS 4 or 5 years ago, also long before it acquired MySQL AB — or before Sun was itself acquired by Oracle, for that matter.
Perhaps you're tuning in to ancestral memories of what Netscape, Inc. did with their software when they saw the writing on the wall...?
Yes, this is a nice story. (Especially since we got Mozilla, Firefox, Thunderbird, Seamonkey, etc. out of the deal.) But it is *nothing* like the MySQL story or the Java story in relation to Sun (and later Oracle). Not even close.
I want software that was correctly written and had no exploits to begin with.
And I want Anonymous Cowards to start making /. posts that are insightful, useful, and realistic.
And WHERE'S MY PONY?!
I'm surprised no one has even mentioned this one.
Amongst the key features:
The basic useful features are free. Didn't see a need to sign up as a paying member, although I might break down and buy a one-time sub just to show my support.
Requires EVIL proprietary binary blob urrh hurrh hurrh Flash urrh binary hurrh hurhh EVIL urrh -- Fuck that, it's a fantastic resource. DO check it out!
Dunno about other places, but here in Sweden it's quite easy (maybe too easy) to have things not directly related to your mobile phone service billed to your mobile phone account.
I've done this myself a couple of times when I've forgot my transport pass (or discovered that it just expired), needed to get someplace in a hurry, and got a one-trip ticket on the subway just by sending an SMS to the transport company.
That sounds like a fantastic idea.
Dunno why you got modded off-topic for it.
It's also a chance to introduce the 'average user' (whatever that is) to the notion that software* does not have to be packaged on a physical object that you have to go to a store and buy.
*Real, useful software, like a reliable OS, not Weather Roach or Borzoi Buddy or some Pin The Tail On The Hedgehog game or what have you.
...I recommend you do it via the install DVD rather than the live CD.
I've been using openSUSE since 2004, and I can't remember the last time I did anything other than a network install. Why waste the bandwidth and media?
Come to think of it, the last few laptop installations I've done haven't even required the use of a network cable.
The only illegal thing is not paying the previous employees and the Australian Government all they were owed.
TFTFY.
Actually, I live about half a block away from one of those cheap pizza places in Europe (Stockholm, to be exact). Little hole in the wall place. Run by Kurdish immigrants. Great (and dirt-cheap) pizzas, and their calzone are to die for. As good as some I've had in Italy.
So, no, I guess that I don't really know what you're talking about. :)
Come to Sweden, where I get 24Mbit up/3 down ADSL for 349 SEK/month (about US$50 or NZ$70).
This includes the phone line.
Oh, and did I mention the part where they answered my obvious question with one of their own: "What's a bandwidth cap?" :)
In Oz, I paid AU$99 (US$90/NZ$120) a month for 3 Mbit up/1 down, 15GB cap, and the phone line ran me another AU$50/mo. (You can multiply by 1.5, right?) And that was with one of the better providers (Internode, IIRC).
I could do better if I lived in a suburb of Stockholm closer to the city centre where they've laid fibre.
Singapore is a microstate. China is anything but.
Let me get this straight -- you're saying that the way to avoid to losing any control over our computers is... to give up all control over our computers?
You don't lose your geek card for not watching TV. You lose it for not owning the complete set of Futurama DVDs.
No, you lose your geek card for not hosting a torrent of the complete set of Futurama DVDs.
I've got 3 Acer laptops, and bought the most recent one in May '09. Only problem I've had with this one is that I've not been able to figure out how to get the built-in webcam to work with OpenSUSE (so once every couple of weeks, I reboot into Vista for an hour or two so I can have a video call with my daughter, who lives with her mum in another country -- I can live with that, I guess). Everything else works a treat -- even did the Linux install using the wifi. That was pretty funny, actually -- started the installer, then realised I didn't have a network cable plugged in, and after scrabbling round in a panic to find one, I got back to my desk to see that it had Found the following wireless networks: ... ... ... Would you like to use one of these? [Y/N].
Nothing wrong with the 2 previous models, either -- got the second one about a year after the first because I needed a backup machine for travel as well as a 64-bit machine for work; got the latest because I wanted dual core, bigger screen, and more RAM.
So laugh if you want to, but Acer just keep coming out with the specs I'm after for the best price. I actually tried very hard this time round to find something else, but after about 3 or 4 weeks of looking, well... (See previous sentence).
I know some of my colleagues think I'm daft because I bought the most recent Acer at my own expense rather than let my employer pay for an "approved" portable from another vendor, but getting something that isn't what you want or need "for free" isn't very helpful or productive IMO. (There's also the reassuring fact that, should something happen with my job, the machine is mine.)
Back on topic: It's an Aspire 7530G, and according to the acer.com check of the serial number, it's not affected by this issue.
Speaking as someone who's made his living as a writer for the last 10+ years, I'd like to say that your comment is exactly what I'd expect from a knothead.
THAT's how I'll achieve early retirement! Why didn't I think of this before? Thanks, Hackus!
(For those of you just joining us: Yes, I am a writer.)
No problems playing my favourite Flash game using Chrome on 64-bit openSUSE 11.1. IIRC, all I had to do was copy libflashplayer.so to /opt/google/chrome/plugins, chown to root, and restart the browser for it to work.
(Would-be down-modders: If you don't want to play, then you don't have to follow the link, okay?)
One of the managers in our office just bought an iPhone that came with Acrobat reader pre-installed.
Thanks for playing, though.
Right, xkcd deliberately and maliciously aped the great and wonderful Simpsons just to annoy you to the point where you'd share that gemlike nugget of profound wisdom with us. Because anybody making a similar joke to one that happened to appear on the Simpsons must be doing so only in order to desecrate our precious bodily fluids as epitomized by the Simpsons, the font of all right and true humour!
In short, you're a tard. Kindly get over yourself, then FOAD.