I think we can live without the ad hominem thanks.
Also, the unit price for bandwidth decreases with volume, not increases. This is precisely because of the non-uniformity you're talking about. Aggregating many bursty links together allows providers to 'hedge their bets' and oversell bandwidth, which results in much more availability on less infrastructure.
When was the last piece of commercially produced culture you saw that you honestly believe will continue to have cultural relevance after a decade or 2?
I mean, I agree entirely that the content industries are producing more, faster, worse content than ever before, but I don't think copyright terms really have a bearing on that fact. I'd say it has more to do with the fact that:
a) it's cheap to produce b) financial turnaround for such productions happens within a year or three in 99% of cases c) they've taught all our kids to have ADD.
It means that community developers will be able to write a driver that works as well in any OS as the Windows one, in every way.
It means all those Linux netbooks that were sold with cheap Aths, will soon have completely robust, standards-compliant wireless. And all those sniffing network-trickery programs that the haxors love, will Just Work(tm). And development can proceed with mesh networking on a much wider scope.
if I were trying to bury something malicious in code, I might consider hiding it in a seemingly harmless easter egg.
You`d get caught. Easter egg code will get scrutinized more than the memory management and garbage-collection code, simply by virtue of the fact that it`s not supposed to be there.
I think there's a counteracting force to the user demand from FOSS users for manufacturers to release their source.
Has the crappiness of nvidia drivers caused an overwhelming demand to open their code, or has it just helped geForce owners decide to stick with Windows for now?
I think it's reasonable to prize freedom of (informed) use a little bit higher than freedom to modify and redistribute. If the point of Free Software is its potential to empower the computer-using public and become better in a way that optimizes:
a) social goods, and b) the improvement and eventual dominance of open platforms and applications
then I think your first objective must be to increase the userbase. Even if this means temporarily adapting the free software away from its ideals in order to better cooperate with nonfree hardware. Expanded userbases will mean more developer interest and money.
Even if the blobs don't always work right, if the "free" distros can bend the rules to make it work acceptably, I say it is best to do so, because of how critical it is now to attract new users.
When the FOSS software starts getting good, inevitably the increased userbase (with its diverse range of software and hardware environments trying to run it) will turn up some problems with the blob.
That's when the the free alternative drivers start getting serious developer attention. And it's when the hardware manufacturers start to see the wisdom in letting the community add value to their product.
For historical example, look at the Atheros chipset. It shipped on a lot of machines with free software, and they just used the closed Windows driver + ndiswrapper. The users needed better drivers. Then Madwifi was adequate for a while, Atheros saw the light, and now we have Ath9k.
This could be the story for every major hardware manufacturer.
Please forgive me my heinous crime of threadjacking, but I can't possibly reply to everyone so I'm just gonna aim for the top of the comments page.
This question has provoked a flood of condescending "OMG, YOU WANT TO LOCK YOUR TODDLER IN A ROOM WITH A COMPUTER AND NEVER INTERACT WITH HIM EVER? LEARN TO PARENT, SHITFACE" type of comments, and they're dumb.
Relax, guys. The OP didn't say anything about the level of involvement he wants to maintain with his kid's computer activities, he didn't ask you which laptop would make the best babysitter, he just asked about sturdiness and kid-friendliness.
For all you know, his plan is to do all of the hands-on stuff that you're lecturing him on, play some blinky, noisy sheep-goes-baa games together, and he just doesn't want to clean burp goo out of his work laptop. Maybe his plan is to gradually expand the computer activities as the kid's skills and autonomy grow.
I have noticed that Slashdotters, while not being an especially baby-having demographic themselves, are just full of haughty, authoritative-sounding advice about what kids need. Am I detecting some psychological projection here, or what?
Weird. I just made a Zombie Valenti joke a sec ago, and then scrolled down half a page and found the exact same idea, timestamped far in advance of my slow-ass idea. Dammit.
Slashdot Mirror
I eat cheese, you insensitive etc.
Hay, what if Google is evil you guys!
penis
Call your pub 'the Speakeasy' and give the bouncers fedoras and Tommy guns.
Would any of these projects have been scrapped if the producers knew they'd only get to collect the first 10 years' worth of commercial revenue?
Having used it?
I think we can live without the ad hominem thanks.
Also, the unit price for bandwidth decreases with volume, not increases. This is precisely because of the non-uniformity you're talking about. Aggregating many bursty links together allows providers to 'hedge their bets' and oversell bandwidth, which results in much more availability on less infrastructure.
When was the last piece of commercially produced culture you saw that you honestly believe will continue to have cultural relevance after a decade or 2?
I mean, I agree entirely that the content industries are producing more, faster, worse content than ever before, but I don't think copyright terms really have a bearing on that fact. I'd say it has more to do with the fact that:
a) it's cheap to produce
b) financial turnaround for such productions happens within a year or three in 99% of cases
c) they've taught all our kids to have ADD.
most people would give up on writing books in favour of washing dishes.
In other news, dishwashing is a way more popular career than book-writing.
Because Code is Law?
</lessig>
It means that community developers will be able to write a driver that works as well in any OS as the Windows one, in every way.
It means all those Linux netbooks that were sold with cheap Aths, will soon have completely robust, standards-compliant wireless. And all those sniffing network-trickery programs that the haxors love, will Just Work(tm). And development can proceed with mesh networking on a much wider scope.
if I were trying to bury something malicious in code, I might consider hiding it in a seemingly harmless easter egg.
You`d get caught. Easter egg code will get scrutinized more than the memory management and garbage-collection code, simply by virtue of the fact that it`s not supposed to be there.
This was an excellent FP. Concise, confident, and actually is first.
I think there's a counteracting force to the user demand from FOSS users for manufacturers to release their source.
Has the crappiness of nvidia drivers caused an overwhelming demand to open their code, or has it just helped geForce owners decide to stick with Windows for now?
I think it's reasonable to prize freedom of (informed) use a little bit higher than freedom to modify and redistribute. If the point of Free Software is its potential to empower the computer-using public and become better in a way that optimizes:
a) social goods, and
b) the improvement and eventual dominance of open platforms and applications
then I think your first objective must be to increase the userbase. Even if this means temporarily adapting the free software away from its ideals in order to better cooperate with nonfree hardware. Expanded userbases will mean more developer interest and money.
Even if the blobs don't always work right, if the "free" distros can bend the rules to make it work acceptably, I say it is best to do so, because of how critical it is now to attract new users.
When the FOSS software starts getting good, inevitably the increased userbase (with its diverse range of software and hardware environments trying to run it) will turn up some problems with the blob.
That's when the the free alternative drivers start getting serious developer attention. And it's when the hardware manufacturers start to see the wisdom in letting the community add value to their product.
For historical example, look at the Atheros chipset. It shipped on a lot of machines with free software, and they just used the closed Windows driver + ndiswrapper. The users needed better drivers. Then Madwifi was adequate for a while, Atheros saw the light, and now we have Ath9k.
This could be the story for every major hardware manufacturer.
Aah, I love it when everyone piles onto a loosely themed comment thread!
What next, deciding a childs life isn't going to be worth it because they aren't as sexy as Hugh Jackman or hung like Ron Jeremy?
You mean, you aren't? And yet you keep pressing on everyday, you brave little soldier...
Misnomer.
It should really be called Up syndrome.
it's impossible to defeat the syndrome during development without modifying the genetic code of every cell in the body.
So what you're saying is, it might be easier when the body consists of fewer cells?
"Mr. Valenti, what would you say is the most valuable class of intellectual property under your purview?"
"BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAINS"
"it's heat that kills a battery" is six words.
And one of those is a contraction, so a pedant might even call it seven.
Fail.
Please forgive me my heinous crime of threadjacking, but I can't possibly reply to everyone so I'm just gonna aim for the top of the comments page.
This question has provoked a flood of condescending "OMG, YOU WANT TO LOCK YOUR TODDLER IN A ROOM WITH A COMPUTER AND NEVER INTERACT WITH HIM EVER? LEARN TO PARENT, SHITFACE" type of comments, and they're dumb.
Relax, guys. The OP didn't say anything about the level of involvement he wants to maintain with his kid's computer activities, he didn't ask you which laptop would make the best babysitter, he just asked about sturdiness and kid-friendliness.
For all you know, his plan is to do all of the hands-on stuff that you're lecturing him on, play some blinky, noisy sheep-goes-baa games together, and he just doesn't want to clean burp goo out of his work laptop. Maybe his plan is to gradually expand the computer activities as the kid's skills and autonomy grow.
I have noticed that Slashdotters, while not being an especially baby-having demographic themselves, are just full of haughty, authoritative-sounding advice about what kids need. Am I detecting some psychological projection here, or what?
Not to get too pedantic, but that should be an echo-reply.
You had me at "interdepartmental plenipotentiaries."
Weird. I just made a Zombie Valenti joke a sec ago, and then scrolled down half a page and found the exact same idea, timestamped far in advance of my slow-ass idea. Dammit.