Yes, Slashdot runs advertisements paid for by Microsoft that slams Linux and Open Source.
I'm kinda mixed on the issue. On one hand, most of the people reading Slashdot are not going to be swayed by MS propaganda, but on the other hand, there is the chance that some CIO or PHB who does not fully understand the issues may be swayed by Microsoft's propaganda and actually believe what they are saying.
I think OSTG should seriously consider the community they are serving before they blatantly take money from the enemy to help their propaganda campaign against Linux and OSS.
The only thing that is worth screening is criminal records. Everything else (batteries of psych tests, etc) can be beaten. Who, other than the blatantly deranged, is going to answer questions on a test that are obviously filter questions in a way that would single them out?
As we have seen on national television, plenty of violent/blood lusting cops make it past the screening process too.
You can bet that this kind of research, at the public university level, will end up being patented by the researcher(s) involved rather than given back to the taxpaying public who funded it in the form of of free research.
Professors in the natural sciences are often ranked by how many patents they hold in their field. Rather sad, isn't it?
Its not the school's fault. The fault is our culture which embraces frivolity and meaninglessness. Culture has changed since then. It is oversimpliflying the issue to try to pin it down on one thing.
Plenty of bright and intelligent people come out of our public school systems. Its hardly their fault if parents and students aren't doing their job.
In fact, I would go so far to say that smart students learn better when they have LESS authoritarianism and more freedom to lean what they choose and however they wish.
The reality is that you can't force people to learn any more than you can force people to be productive members of society (however you define that) or force them to be moral, ethical, etc.
On the contrary, the questions being raised about the quality of blogs is very correct..
The average blog is just some random joe telling us about his day or various bits of intellectual sophistry about things he doesn't understand (politics, science, etc).
Sorry, quantity != quality. A million monkeys at a million typewriters, only a few of them are producing the works of Shakespeare.
Ease/Speed? I don't get it. It takes less horsepower to decode an MP3 than it does an OGG and as far as I can tell, they're equally "easy" to use.
By all means, do what you want, especially if your software prefers oggs (though I'd consider the software retarded if it refuses to stream MP3, the most common formoat on the planet, I'd be switching to another streaming server).
There isn't anything to sign. Since USPS is a quasi-government agency, they can pretty much make it illegal themselves by saying the boxes are property of USPS.
In reality, its not likely you will get caught unless you are a giant online retailer sending UPS packages in USPS boxes (though this doesn't make much sense anyway). USPS isn't gonna catch me boxing my possessions for organization or for me to load in the car for moving.
USPS only bitches when you turn the free boxes inside out and use them to send stuff Parcel Post instead of Priority Mail.
Shameless Ad- Of all the shippers, I like USPS the best. They have very competitive rates, when compared to the ground services of UPS and FedEx (though, UPS/FedEx might be able to beat on price if you have a high volume discount, which most of us individuals/small businesses don't have) and your packages come in much faster. Average time for a Priority Mail parcel is 2 days across the USA. Tracking is even getting better too - they are doing scans at post offices now, instead of just at delivery.
I request Priority Mail whenever possible. USPS never smashes my package and they come to my door almost the same time everyday. UPS delivers my ground packages around 7PM.
No one is complaining that you posted samples but don't sit here and pretend thats what he wanted and then throw a fit when I point out he wanted the album and not the samples.
This is Slashdot. You don't have to take it seriously.
I want my possessions to come to my apartment intact, not broken in 1000 pieces and the edges of the box smashed in.
Seriously, UPS has the worst track record in package handling. One time I was looking for a job during college.. I went to UPS and they took us on a tour of their package handling facilities. You will never want to be a customer of UPS after you tour their facilities. They don't care about your package. The people who work there have to work their "packages per hour" number.. if they get too low, they get fired, so quality/careful handling doesn't simply exist at UPS.
Poster said that the album wasn't on iTunes. Linking to samples isn't an alternative to getting the album. He didn't ask what the music sounded like or anything.
Kinda shitty software that wont let you stream MP3s though. Streamers like Icecast reencode audio anyway.. to a lower bitrate MP3 stream.
Yes, you will notice though. Unless your audio system is junk. Why waste time transcoding MP3 to OGG? Its pointless and stupid. Reencode from the source. There is nothing gained from the process.
I don't care about getting FP (check my posting history). Thats for losers like TripMasterMonkey, Garcia, and GNAA trolls, all who need the attention.
I check Slashdot every... (few minutes?).. because I really have nothing else to do with my life.. Personally, I don't really care about having a Slashdot RSS feed, but given how often new stories are posted, using the Slashdot feed to "keep up to date" is really not practical.
Given how inefficent Slashcode is, it makes no sense to have this restriction but not complain about hundreds of thousands of people hitting refresh every 5 minutes on the front page. It takes hardly any CPU power at all to have Slash generate a static XML file every time a story is posted, modified, or removed. The static file would also have miniscule server impact compared to me opening the front page.
Common sense isn't always common when it comes to some people.
I didn't accuse you or anyone else of anything in particular, but since you're apt to do it, I'll say this: Only losers who are obsessed with blogs need 500 RSS feeds!
Slashdot bans you if you refresh too often.. so it really is not a practical solution if you want to be up to date.
Seems kinda retarded if it is OK with them that you can refresh the front page, images + dynamic content, hundreds of times daily, but you can't refresh the RSS feed without risk of getting banned.
Your "garbage" device is illegal unless it is type accepted by the FCC for power output and spectural usage.
I never said anything about primary network infrastructure, I said critical. People are using wireless more and more these days and while there is usually a wired alternative there are often times when having wireless unavailable would be a time consuming annoyance. Companies have wireless Ethernet and they don't have it for fun, it's because it's a useful tool for business. The problem is it's a very vulnerable system with basically no legal protection.
If its not primary then it wouldn't be critical. When the wireless signal is weak or the bandwidth is too slow, there should be a ethernet jack to plug into. Any company that views wireless as "critical" is boneheaded.
Who said anything about going there without permission. If you didn't have permission you might be able to do something else. Maybe "sit on the road outside their office". RTFP.
Chances are the "device" you are operating is illegal in that case. RTFP (in that case, it would be my post).
Not true. If I setup my WAP on the same channel as the WAP my neighbor setup and send data on it constantly his won't work well. I've essentially jammed him. Since this is obvously legal it is possible to jam 802.11 legally. I'm assuming that a device that simply transmits noise on all 802.11 channels would be legal as well as long as it stayed within the power requrements. Granted, for large facilities this may not work so well if done from the road but from smaller more urban places where businesses are stacked up this could be a problem.
Not really. You don't understand how 802.11 and DSS works. Its not ideal and there will likely be SOME degredation, it would not likely be very much at all in most situations.
I live in a crowded apartment complex where every channel is occupied by many different APs all around me. I have not experienced any problem with signal or bandwidth.
I'm talking about opening up 1-2 more channels in a band right next to 802.11 which current 802.11 chipsets could easily be expanded to work in that were licensed at the same power levels as the current 802.11 band is limited to. It would allow the creation of dependable 802.11 systems in places where you may not have control over who broadcasts on the 802.11 frequencies like universities, apartment buildings, airports, conventions and generally anywhere a large number of people are with computers.
How does that stop someone from "jamming" the signal?
You come off all snob and arrogant, as if you know what you are talking about but you really show a lack of understanding about the technology and the regulations involved.
They do make licensed wireless systems. They just cost an assload becuase no one wants them.
FCC says you can't forbid operation of wireless on premises and you will certianly be in a heap of trouble if you jam anyone's signal to stifle competition.
I would hope that no company runs a 802.11 system as their primary networking infrastructure.
Whoops, it looks like the CEO can't access his files becuase his secretary is in the lounge next door microwaving her TV dinner!
Also, if you walk into a company's pemiesis without their premission, they can boot you out or have you hauled away for tresspassing. If you're jamming their signal, you can be in hot water with the FCC. This really has nothing to do with being licensed or unlicensed - jammers can be made to jam anything regardless.
Do you run your security system, keycards, and police radios all on unlicensed 2.4Ghz spectrum? I doub't it (and if you do, you have to share it just like everyone else.. Part 15 regs). They're trying to cop out some pitiful sounding reasons to stifle competition..
I think the last thing you want them is to have a mental disorder. We're trying to decrease fraud here.
It doesn't take a genius to do the return counter..
One solution: have a more stringent return system. Have the counter staff have a catalog of the store's items so they can compare it with what the customer is returning.
Solution two: Require the item returned to be processed through the department through which it was bought. Who better to tell if you are returning a bucket of bolts or an XBOX than the electronics department? They sell the items (narrower range of familiarity), so they would probably have a better chance of telling if someone is pulling a fast one.
If the people who manned the return counters were actually experienced salespeople who climbed the ladder rather than teenagers doing summer jobs, all of the points mentioned could be encompassed.
Sometimes the common sense solutions aren't so common.
You know, DirecTV sued people who bought smart card writers.. not people who pirated them, just people who buy them! A small minority of people were buying the writers to program their DTV access cards to give them free TV.
I can imagine Subway doing the same thing now to combat sandwich fraud.
No one is questioning their rights to edit or reject reviews. This story is simply how those online stores treat customer reviews. Since we are the customers, we would like to get an honest appraisal of what we are thinking about purchasing. If I find out that a store is not being honest in its review policy, then I may choose not to buy from that store.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, Slashdot runs advertisements paid for by Microsoft that slams Linux and Open Source.
I'm kinda mixed on the issue. On one hand, most of the people reading Slashdot are not going to be swayed by MS propaganda, but on the other hand, there is the chance that some CIO or PHB who does not fully understand the issues may be swayed by Microsoft's propaganda and actually believe what they are saying.
I think OSTG should seriously consider the community they are serving before they blatantly take money from the enemy to help their propaganda campaign against Linux and OSS.
I've had PLENTY of retarded teachers.
The only thing that is worth screening is criminal records. Everything else (batteries of psych tests, etc) can be beaten. Who, other than the blatantly deranged, is going to answer questions on a test that are obviously filter questions in a way that would single them out?
As we have seen on national television, plenty of violent/blood lusting cops make it past the screening process too.
Sorry, it doesn't work.
You can bet that this kind of research, at the public university level, will end up being patented by the researcher(s) involved rather than given back to the taxpaying public who funded it in the form of of free research.
Professors in the natural sciences are often ranked by how many patents they hold in their field. Rather sad, isn't it?
Its not the school's fault. The fault is our culture which embraces frivolity and meaninglessness. Culture has changed since then. It is oversimpliflying the issue to try to pin it down on one thing.
Plenty of bright and intelligent people come out of our public school systems. Its hardly their fault if parents and students aren't doing their job.
In fact, I would go so far to say that smart students learn better when they have LESS authoritarianism and more freedom to lean what they choose and however they wish.
The reality is that you can't force people to learn any more than you can force people to be productive members of society (however you define that) or force them to be moral, ethical, etc.
On the contrary, the questions being raised about the quality of blogs is very correct..
The average blog is just some random joe telling us about his day or various bits of intellectual sophistry about things he doesn't understand (politics, science, etc).
Sorry, quantity != quality. A million monkeys at a million typewriters, only a few of them are producing the works of Shakespeare.
Ease/Speed? I don't get it. It takes less horsepower to decode an MP3 than it does an OGG and as far as I can tell, they're equally "easy" to use.
By all means, do what you want, especially if your software prefers oggs (though I'd consider the software retarded if it refuses to stream MP3, the most common formoat on the planet, I'd be switching to another streaming server).
There isn't anything to sign. Since USPS is a quasi-government agency, they can pretty much make it illegal themselves by saying the boxes are property of USPS.
In reality, its not likely you will get caught unless you are a giant online retailer sending UPS packages in USPS boxes (though this doesn't make much sense anyway). USPS isn't gonna catch me boxing my possessions for organization or for me to load in the car for moving.
USPS only bitches when you turn the free boxes inside out and use them to send stuff Parcel Post instead of Priority Mail.
Shameless Ad- Of all the shippers, I like USPS the best. They have very competitive rates, when compared to the ground services of UPS and FedEx (though, UPS/FedEx might be able to beat on price if you have a high volume discount, which most of us individuals/small businesses don't have) and your packages come in much faster. Average time for a Priority Mail parcel is 2 days across the USA. Tracking is even getting better too - they are doing scans at post offices now, instead of just at delivery.
I request Priority Mail whenever possible. USPS never smashes my package and they come to my door almost the same time everyday. UPS delivers my ground packages around 7PM.
This is easily avoided if FedEx/UPS does a background check on their customers.
How many shipments has this person made in the past year?
Is this a brand new customer we never heard of before ordering 500 boxes?
Does an individual who is not registered as a business with us really need that many boxes?
etc.
This really seems like common sense. I kinda dropped my jaw when I saw that I could literally order as many free boxes from UPS as I wanted.
Don't throw such a hissy fit.
No one is complaining that you posted samples but don't sit here and pretend thats what he wanted and then throw a fit when I point out he wanted the album and not the samples.
This is Slashdot. You don't have to take it seriously.
I want my possessions to come to my apartment intact, not broken in 1000 pieces and the edges of the box smashed in.
Seriously, UPS has the worst track record in package handling. One time I was looking for a job during college.. I went to UPS and they took us on a tour of their package handling facilities. You will never want to be a customer of UPS after you tour their facilities. They don't care about your package. The people who work there have to work their "packages per hour" number.. if they get too low, they get fired, so quality/careful handling doesn't simply exist at UPS.
Yes, pointing out what the original poster said is so trollish, Argent.
Poster said that the album wasn't on iTunes. Linking to samples isn't an alternative to getting the album. He didn't ask what the music sounded like or anything.
Yes, we know listening to samples is an alternative to getting the actual complete album..
Streaming audio isn't meant to be high quality.
Kinda shitty software that wont let you stream MP3s though. Streamers like Icecast reencode audio anyway.. to a lower bitrate MP3 stream.
Yes, you will notice though. Unless your audio system is junk. Why waste time transcoding MP3 to OGG? Its pointless and stupid. Reencode from the source. There is nothing gained from the process.
Do NOT transcode from one lossy format to another lossy format.
The result is something that is even worse. Don't do this ever.
Rip from the source (CD, WAV, etc.). Never transcode. Ever. I can't say this enough!
I don't care about getting FP (check my posting history). Thats for losers like TripMasterMonkey, Garcia, and GNAA trolls, all who need the attention.
I check Slashdot every... (few minutes?).. because I really have nothing else to do with my life.. Personally, I don't really care about having a Slashdot RSS feed, but given how often new stories are posted, using the Slashdot feed to "keep up to date" is really not practical.
Given how inefficent Slashcode is, it makes no sense to have this restriction but not complain about hundreds of thousands of people hitting refresh every 5 minutes on the front page. It takes hardly any CPU power at all to have Slash generate a static XML file every time a story is posted, modified, or removed. The static file would also have miniscule server impact compared to me opening the front page.
Common sense isn't always common when it comes to some people.
I didn't accuse you or anyone else of anything in particular, but since you're apt to do it, I'll say this: Only losers who are obsessed with blogs need 500 RSS feeds!
the average cheapo DVD player you buy made in China that costs $30 was made by a company that has nothing to do with the sales of videos or media
they make money in volume. its not a big profit margin, but its no loss leader.
Slashdot bans you if you refresh too often.. so it really is not a practical solution if you want to be up to date.
Seems kinda retarded if it is OK with them that you can refresh the front page, images + dynamic content, hundreds of times daily, but you can't refresh the RSS feed without risk of getting banned.
It will probably be slipped in the next revision of NAFTA.
Enjoy!
Your "garbage" device is illegal unless it is type accepted by the FCC for power output and spectural usage.
I never said anything about primary network infrastructure, I said critical. People are using wireless more and more these days and while there is usually a wired alternative there are often times when having wireless unavailable would be a time consuming annoyance. Companies have wireless Ethernet and they don't have it for fun, it's because it's a useful tool for business. The problem is it's a very vulnerable system with basically no legal protection.
If its not primary then it wouldn't be critical. When the wireless signal is weak or the bandwidth is too slow, there should be a ethernet jack to plug into. Any company that views wireless as "critical" is boneheaded.
Who said anything about going there without permission. If you didn't have permission you might be able to do something else. Maybe "sit on the road outside their office". RTFP.
Chances are the "device" you are operating is illegal in that case. RTFP (in that case, it would be my post).
Not true. If I setup my WAP on the same channel as the WAP my neighbor setup and send data on it constantly his won't work well. I've essentially jammed him. Since this is obvously legal it is possible to jam 802.11 legally. I'm assuming that a device that simply transmits noise on all 802.11 channels would be legal as well as long as it stayed within the power requrements. Granted, for large facilities this may not work so well if done from the road but from smaller more urban places where businesses are stacked up this could be a problem.
Not really. You don't understand how 802.11 and DSS works. Its not ideal and there will likely be SOME degredation, it would not likely be very much at all in most situations.
I live in a crowded apartment complex where every channel is occupied by many different APs all around me. I have not experienced any problem with signal or bandwidth.
I'm talking about opening up 1-2 more channels in a band right next to 802.11 which current 802.11 chipsets could easily be expanded to work in that were licensed at the same power levels as the current 802.11 band is limited to. It would allow the creation of dependable 802.11 systems in places where you may not have control over who broadcasts on the 802.11 frequencies like universities, apartment buildings, airports, conventions and generally anywhere a large number of people are with computers.
How does that stop someone from "jamming" the signal?
You come off all snob and arrogant, as if you know what you are talking about but you really show a lack of understanding about the technology and the regulations involved.
They do make licensed wireless systems. They just cost an assload becuase no one wants them.
FCC says you can't forbid operation of wireless on premises and you will certianly be in a heap of trouble if you jam anyone's signal to stifle competition.
I would hope that no company runs a 802.11 system as their primary networking infrastructure.
Whoops, it looks like the CEO can't access his files becuase his secretary is in the lounge next door microwaving her TV dinner!
Also, if you walk into a company's pemiesis without their premission, they can boot you out or have you hauled away for tresspassing. If you're jamming their signal, you can be in hot water with the FCC. This really has nothing to do with being licensed or unlicensed - jammers can be made to jam anything regardless.
Do you run your security system, keycards, and police radios all on unlicensed 2.4Ghz spectrum? I doub't it (and if you do, you have to share it just like everyone else.. Part 15 regs). They're trying to cop out some pitiful sounding reasons to stifle competition..
I think the last thing you want them is to have a mental disorder. We're trying to decrease fraud here.
It doesn't take a genius to do the return counter..
One solution: have a more stringent return system. Have the counter staff have a catalog of the store's items so they can compare it with what the customer is returning.
Solution two: Require the item returned to be processed through the department through which it was bought. Who better to tell if you are returning a bucket of bolts or an XBOX than the electronics department? They sell the items (narrower range of familiarity), so they would probably have a better chance of telling if someone is pulling a fast one.
If the people who manned the return counters were actually experienced salespeople who climbed the ladder rather than teenagers doing summer jobs, all of the points mentioned could be encompassed.
Sometimes the common sense solutions aren't so common.
Hmm..
You know, DirecTV sued people who bought smart card writers.. not people who pirated them, just people who buy them! A small minority of people were buying the writers to program their DTV access cards to give them free TV.
I can imagine Subway doing the same thing now to combat sandwich fraud.
No one is questioning their rights to edit or reject reviews. This story is simply how those online stores treat customer reviews. Since we are the customers, we would like to get an honest appraisal of what we are thinking about purchasing. If I find out that a store is not being honest in its review policy, then I may choose not to buy from that store.