If that graph is real i think you can precisely pinpoint the year that the reasonable moderate citizens lost control of your country to the extremists.
I've put a great deal of thought into Television recently.
The little picture box that people leave on for the majority of their leisure time, the box that gives the ruling class a direct link into our homes and minds, the box that i would say is most dangerous when it's left on in the background, not actually being watched. Exposing each individual to thousands of hours of propaganda in its truest form, (Orwell wrote that all writing is propaganda, i think that could be expanded to cover TV). Working in the backs of peoples minds slowly over the years and decades forming our beliefs and attitudes.
It also seems to have become some sort of holy symbol, you have those that 'escape' the cult, who are then scorned and looked on as kooks and mistrusted by those who are left behind(of course some people who free themselves from any vice can be a bit self-righteous) but overall there is a feeling of distrust towards those that are no longer captive, i know because i remember a number of times in my life feeling just that towards people who have simply stated they dont watch TV.
I personally dont write from a position of righteousness, my family have TVs, the TV is the centre of our living room and is on for most of the night. Lately though my mind has been rebelling, anger rises withing me at the lies, the manipulation and deviousness. My anger and frustration not only applies to news and current affairs programs, but to the fictional programs that always have a some insipid moral lesson or are outright propaganda.
For me now the sweetest relief is the thought of unleashing a fury upon the front of our big screen with my sledgehammer. I have found myself watching less, and the less i watch the more i find myself simply unable to watch. My mind seems to be emerging from some sort of numbness, i can't explain it, i assume others have felt this way and there is more articulate people than me who may be able to describe what i mean. I can more clearly identify the lies and subversion that was invisible to me not so long ago. I've also begun reading again, it seems to be sharpening my mind, i have started to truly understand the book '1984', the pollution of language giving an inability to describe abstract constructs, it is very real to me. I find myself often struggling to find words and descriptions for ideas that my subconcious mind has started putting forward into my concious mind lately.
These are my thoughts, perhaps i'm just a little strange : ).
Is there a bot on this site that posts stupid mindless two line replys to peoples posts?
It seems to be written something like this:
$array = array(i rape your mother, they steal your children, communists eat your puppies); $bad_thing = array[rand(3)]; echo "So by your logic it's ok if $bad_thing";
Perhaps if you actually read my post it I quite clearly made out my position on ILLEGALY breaking into a computer and copying its files. Doing so will see in a very real concrete and steel barred prison.
The crime you have committed isn't neccessarely theft in the traditional sense.
Either your going for the 'quick & witty' mod, or you're stupid, perhaps both?
Plus i dont have a social security number, so copying it would be a bit hard. But if i understand correctly it's not exactly hard to get anyway given the prevalence of its (mis)use in your country.
I saw a difference before your post, but now i'm just confused. That's a pretty crazy leap you made to get to your conclusion.
Lets try and make things simpler and see where we end up?
Copying is illegal?
No, distribution is illegal. Therefore it wasn't anything to do with copyright infringement, so both you and the GP are misguided.
Copying files after breaking into a network is stealing?
No that's just copying files after breaking into a network, a different crime i would imagine (it may be theft but not in the sense that your post makes it out to be).
Breaking into a network breaks various laws, copying files after breaking into a network *is* probably against some law or another but its not 'stealing' in a reasonable sense i.e you haven't taken something away from the victim. Although now that i think about it reasonable people will say that if someone copies some private file they have taken something (data) that's not theirs to take, so i guess as usual nothing is simple.
Could it be something else?
Unauthorised copying? Unauthorised access?
Or perhaps copying data that you gain access to illegally is just a part of any overall legislation that deals with computer crime.
Conclusion I really don't know. But it's probably not so 'simple' as your post makes it out to be (in its roundabout way). Copying files is not illegal in the copyright sense. Copying files after breaking into a machine/network is undoubtably against the law in most countries. It may be deemed theft, but not in the sense that you stole a cow or car. More like theft of trade secrets (is there such a thing?).
Did my wife accept "the deal" when she bought her husband one of those 'minidisc thingamajigs' that she thought he would like? Was she made aware of the fact that they are beyond useless, that it would eventually end up residing in the bottom kitchen draw because of the pain it causes when six months worth of extremely slow and painful cd ripping using the crappy proprietry Sony software goes straight down the drain when said software randomly decides that it wont open the encrypted music files anymore?
I don't mind, you'll get ripped off eventually and nobody will care because "YOU ACCEPTED THE DEAL", though undoubtably you will squeal like a stuck pig, putting the fact that that you ever forwarded this view out of your mind.
That was pretty weak effort mate, i was kind of hoping for better.
Liberal? lol, communist? wtf? North Korea? wtf are talking about?? you display you absolute ignorance about the world by using the word 'liberal' like some sort of insult. The elected party of my country are 'liberal', in fact that's their name, 'The Liberals' man you're stupid.
Also just wondering how you reconcile the fact that most prominent 'democrats' in your country have served, while pretty much none of the republicans have? How does it feel to be a footsoldier for a bunch of idle rich and nancys?
NOBODY HAS STARTED A WAR WITH YOU IN OVER 50 YEARS.
Vietnam did not declare war on you, Cambodia, Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Brazil, they didn't ask you to get involved in their affairs, yet YOU DID ANYWAY and as usual royally screwed their countries in the process. Because when America gets involved it does so only when it benefits America. That's OK, if you've been asked, but don't come to us screaming how altruistic you are when your unwanted meddling causes vast amounts of suffering.
Posts like the parent typically get modded up on this site, the yanks don't like anybody else criticising their countries actions. It's perfectly A-OK for them to sit around discussing which countries elected leader they should murder next, which country, that has *never* done a single THING to them, they should invade next. But the moment someone in the world dares to raise a single criticism of the USs past actions, oh the world is just-so-mean, how dare we forget the good deed that America performed over sixty years ago, by a generation that is nearly dead. Forgetting that If everyone had of just layed down arms America would have been SCREWED. Lets just forgot the millions of dead russians, tens of thousands of Poms, Aussies and every other nationality that shed their blood (you know the WORLD part in WORLD WAR), the americans did it all! That absolves the current and future generations of every atrocity (yes turning reasonably stable countries into savage thirdworld dictatorships IS an atrocity) that they ever commit from then on.
You want to extend the 'GPs arbitrary limit' Lets extend it, 100 years ago in the Phillipines, what you fuckers did there is as bad as anything any other shitty country has country has done, so don't play the oh we the poor martyrs of the world just try to do good and nobody loves us. AMERICA PEACEFUL? SITUATION YOUR NOW IN, THE SITUATION THAT YOU CREATED WHEN YOU INVADED ANOTHER COUNTRY?? fuck me i just can't even go on, its FUCKING CRAZY reading shit like this, do you actually believe it or do you just suspend reality to be mindlessly nationalistic.
You, America, have *well and truly* cashed in the reputation that your involvement in WWII gained for your country.
One last thing, we all know it's a good thing that Americans have finally started to acknowledge that there is one other land mass in the universe besides America, but it's time to graduate first grade and move to second grade where you will be taught that there is *many* land masses and that not everyone is European or North American. In fact you are in the minority, so before you call someone a "European socialist" (apparently an insult?) make sure that they are actually from Europe yeah?
(See other people can be smug and sarcastic too, nice isn't it?)
"No, it's because our knowledge builds on top of the last generation's knowledge, and along with writing those ideas down, humanity's knowledge base becomes exponentially larger."
Or in other words, people are no more intelligent now than 100 years ago, they just have a greater amount of knowledge to tap...
Hang on a minute, thats *exactly* what the OP said, so why the sarcasm?
I wonder if 100 years ago people were so quick to show off how 'witty' they are that they misinterpreted other peoples words as much as people do now?
It's unfotunate that the recent trend of comments on slashdot is as follows:
Someone makes a clear easy to understand statement, respondant totally misrepresents the original argument with a smug possibly prewritten rant.
Let me make it simple for you as it seems your reading comprehension is lower than most.
Original post: I'm a big banging highflying executive, i don't want to pay for software, these nerdy geeks make some good software but damn it it doesn't have the shine that a multimillion dollar corp with 500 employees working eight hours a day has. This is simply unacceptable.
Reply: Thats because it's a hobby for those nerdy geeks. (Rhetorically states that if he wants it for free thats what he gets)
You: I totally miss the point, and obviously have an axe to grind. That hobbiest doesn't know whats best for him, he must be trying to sell that labour, oss geeks dont understand business because i say so, i will also make wide generalisations about a loosenit group of individuals trying to making myself look superior to 'all those oss people', unfortunately displaying my mindless need to group everyone into nice neat categories.
Reply: Once again a clear statement that reasonable people grok....
You: Grinding this axe till there ain't nothing left, and again misrepresenting, reference the rhetoric of the original poster you replied to as though it was a statement of opinion and then mix in a bag of common cliques.
OSS has continued to increase in popularity despite the constant 'oss nerds should make enterprise software and shut their pie hole' rantings like yours. I've watched for years as every time an oss story is posted, theres th obligitory "oss won't succeed unless blahblahblah", well it *is* succeeding and the same attitudes prevail now as have always prevailed, in fact it i would say it's probably worse now than five years ago, so you fail it.
Oh and your reference to the imaginary oss developer bitching about a commercial entity cloning his "unpolished" app is a strawman.
Oh i don't know, when you're face to face with a set of 20 foot waves about to unload a few hundred tonnes of water on your head, the only help you can expect is from yourself. No government department, "safety net", charity, family or friends to lean on. Just your primal fear and weak and puny flesh and bone versus the full fury of the ocean.
Most surfers understand personal responsibility better than anyone else.
Oh you mean 'internet surfing', well can't help you there;).
More like some sort of skuttle-machine, perhaps he should change his nick to 'machine of endless slashdot editing' or something similarly as snappy and hip.
Sixteen hours of endless frontpage slashdotige, can nothing stop the man?
It's sad that some seem to get turned on by the thought of government authority commanding and murdering civilians en masse in civil emergencies. Usually fanatical movie watchers who get excited when someone "takes command" and overides those arcane "civil liberties".
It's not impossible to deal with civil unrest without massacering large groups of people.
They're your own countrymen, the thought of your own military killing even one of them "for the greater good" should make you squirm with conflict, and at best only be grudgingly accepted into your thoughts as an acceptable thing to happen on your own soil. Instead you seem almost turned on by the thought.
I'm glad you don't live near me...
Of course then there is the thought of who modded up an obviously disturbed persons thoughts.
"Two in the gut and let them roll around in water that's been filtered through a few hundred dead bodies. Infection and the sun will take them in a day or so, and they'll suffer like they deserve."
Your countrymen...
Slashdot, normal thoughts, for authoritarians.
(To those who will flame away "you support poeple raping babies and puppies and and and" no i don't. What happens happens if they get shot then, thats that, but that doesn't mean i mentally masturbate over the thought of people being murdered by their own military like the parent poster seems to).
"or Canada (9 months of waiting for a mammogram)."
You're being lied to, well maybe not lied to, but you allowing yourself to be misled, and you're trying to mislead others.
I live in Australia, we have nationalised health care. We also have private health care if you want it (though every one i know that has it usually end up in the public hospitals anyway when they have something go really wrong).
I've been in and out of hospital 5 times in the last two months with a recently diagnosed low risk heart condition, it will be fixed in an operation next month. Thats three months from when i initially passed out. This is a non life threatening condition and i'm in the state that is assumed to have the worst care in Australia (Queensland). If i went to Sydney i could of had it done this month, but it's not really a problem so i'll wait.
Immediate cost to me $0.
I broke my leg three years ago, One week in hospital, an eight hour operation, titanium bar in my leg and pysiotherapy.
Immediate cost to me $0.
Obviously it is not free, i pay $650p/a in my taxes as a medicare levy as does anyone who earns over $52,000p/a. The average cost for private health insurance is $1000p/a and you still have to fork over thousands if you actually need anything reasonable done.
I've received world class treatment in our public hospitals, Quick efficient and no problems outside of the norm, some doctors not listening carefully etc,etc...
See the good thing about the internet, it lets you hear and talk to other people about their experiences in their countries. Understand me, the US is *NO* better than here, thats not that its bad, its very very good, just like here. The major difference is that here i don't have to *worry* about getting sick or something going wrong, i know that i will get top class healthcare no matter my situation, and there will be not a $100,000 bill at the end of it. I know this from my own, my family and my friends experiences, this is in contrast to what you have "heard" by talking heads and 'pundits' about those evil nationalised health care coutries.
Even if you were correct in what your implying (which you're not), there's horror stories in every large system in the world that deals with people, funnily in this country the American system is used as the example of what we most definately don't want.
Oh well, what would i know i'm just a citizen living in a country that understands that there is more to life and society than profit motive for business.
Going for the +5 patriotic mod today eh? To bad you failed. You do realise it's the GGPs "snide" comments about other countries offering aid that makes so many of you yanks look like assholes.
The countries that do give aid don't carry on about it you see, we give quietly and humbly, all the while shaking our heads while Americans screams from the top of their lungs "LOOK OH LOOK AT HOW GRACIOUS WE ARE, SUCH MARTYRS WE ARE EVERYONE BOW DOWN BEFORE OUR GENEROSITY AND FOREVER TELL US HOW MAGNIFICENT WE ARE".
As i read through your post i am vindicated in mine,
"we should stay the hell out and let the suffer, since they never help out, it's always us with the pocketbooks open, sucking away funds that could be used on our own internal matters."
Do you see how pathetic you come across? you are not special, you give no more or less than any other western democracy, so please, give it a rest ok?
As for the rest of your rant,
1. Timing I didn't bring it up FOOL, an American, one of your infaliable countrymen thought little enough to politicise it while his countrymen are dying, remember? the post i responded to? clown.
2. Envy, embarrasment, etc
Me envious of you? lol.
Of course you posted anonymously, not me, so i would say it's you who is embarrassed.
3.My own country,
My own country, Australia, will have already offered help, it would not have called a press conference to do so, see "humbleness" above.
4. Crazy rant about American political imperialism
"For starters, why isn't there a shell that emulates the windows CMD? As useful greps / finds / pipe chains are, they can't match the simplicity of a DIR/S. I've been using MS-DOS for more than 15 years, moving to Linux is restarting everything from scratch. Is that really NECESSARY?"
For starters, ls -lR is just as simple as DIR/S even more so considering the R stands for recursive, what does "S" represent?
Secondly, it sounds like you want Linux to become Windows so you don't have to learn anything. Sorry mate, you're in the tech field, you're expected to learn difficult stuff once in awhile. Thats why you get paid more than the Janitor.
I have used Windows for years, since 3.1, i am an win2k MCSE for goodness sake. Yes it was hard learning the ins an outs of Linux, not because it's unintuitive, but because it a totally different way of doing things, it was hard learning Windows as well, i remember spending semesters in highschool being taught how to use Windows, Word, Excel (also Wordperfect and some crazy command line text editor). Once learned, i found it's faaaar easier for me to get my work done using KDE than it ever was or ever could be in Windows.
If you step away from Windows for a year then go back you will understand that the transition from Linux or OSX or whatever -> Windows is *just* as difficult as the transition to Windows -> Linux or OSX or anything else, unfortunately it takes the patience of learning something new to be able to do this. Patience is something people don't have these days.
Well, we all just assumed the "greatest country in the world(tm)" would be capable of taking care of an internal natural disaster itself, i mean my lowly country can and does every year, but if you can't...
I'm sure us "less fortunate" countries who are so envious of your great and powerful country can scrape together some small amount of charity if you really need it.
Of course in the great tradition of the US of A, if you accept our charity we get to meddle in the affairs of your country forever. Ok?
Kind of a typical yank,
'There's two countries in the world, The great US of A and that little one, umm Europe or something. So i'll base all of my arguments on that."
The world is much bigger than you seem to be able to imagine.
As long as you keep your moral indignation to the left hand lane you, me and about 90% of the rest of the driving public who are still capable of deciding that depending on the conditions 5-10 km/h over the posted limit is acceptable should get along juuust fine...
I'm not sure what to make of you saying speeding = exhaust fumes = lives? Are you making an anti-pollution argument? Because if you are your statement is deceptive, cars, trucks and busses have differing ranges where they are at peak efficiency depending on gearing, engine size and aerodynamics, rarely does it fall exactly on the speed limit. Also if the speed limit is 60km/h and i "speed" and do 63km/h and that costs lives, then doing 100km/h on the highway must be absolutely genocidal.
Perhaps you haven't thought this through? Best stick with the tried and true method of "think of the children".
A constant barrage of government propoganda asserting that speed cameras are perfectly reliable has dulled peoples outrage of the fact that "blackbox" style machines are generating a massive amount of money for state governments.
There has been major incidents where;
1. In victoria many cameras were proven to be faulty, showing trucks, busses and old beat up cars doing absolutely rediculous speeds.
2. Just now 180 speed cameras in Queensland have been withdrawn, because they are faulty.
3. Speed camera operators have been shown regularly ignoring the usage guidelines and parking in spots that will provide improper results, near signs, suburban areas where there a metal garage doors in the line of sight of the radar, on corners, etc.
How many people have lost their licenses because of faulty cameras, or been hit with massive fines? (in NSW it's $1400 for 40km/h over the limit). I mean if you're a young mail (under 30) you wouldn't have a hope in hell of disputing one of these, the judge would laugh you out of the courtroom.
As another poster mentioned many states have these operations outsourced to private companies, private companies with profit as a motive to fine people. I would enjoy hearing the rabid free marketeers argue that that having a private company with little oversite and no accountability to the average person is superior in this case.
Finally for some fun reading, it does read a bit "there out to get us", but the information and statistics seem reasonable. Showing that speed cameras have done very close to nothing in Australia to prevent road deaths.
Umm, I think using the word "revolutionised" is probably as over the top as claiming Linux running KDE or Gnome or whatever will "take over" the desktop market.
My iBook (which is downstairs that i use every night), is no more or less revolutionary, better or worse than my PC that i use everyday that runs KDE.
Both have things i love and rant about, that are new and different, both have things that shit me to tears.
The difference? When i get shitty at KDE, or some OS application i think "It's free and look at the awsome stuff it does". When i get shitty at OSX, i think, "ooohh look the MIGHTY OSX being a pain in the arse, whats that? I need to spend *more money* on yet another stupid shareware application to perform some inane task like putting my iPhoto library into a different place?"
Revolutionised indeed, a revolution would be holographic projectors that can read my thoughts or some awesome shit like that, little bouncing icons and an automatic window organiser is *not* revolutionary.
(Sorry, just bitter after wrestling with OSX for a few hours yet again).
There a lot of stuff going on today that wouldn't have been believed even *10* years ago.
My own country (Australia) has just taken a turn for the worse with the government posing to give powers to security agencies that are simply authoritarian.
The power that they seek (and will get) is faaaaar beyond anything that the US or the UK currently have. I can only imagine that ten years ago if you had of said that in this country, in ten years, a secret police whose employees cannot be identified under penalty of prison can haul ANYONE they want off the street for up to three months without telling anyone and with out *any* civilian oversite. That person no longer with the to remain silent, faces up to five years in prison if they choose not to speak, cannot contact family or friends and can only contact a lawyer if they know the lawyers name, and even then the lawyer can be denied at the agents discretion, the lawyer is also not allowed to tell any one where they are. Anybody ten years ago would have laughed "not in this country" they would have said.
Of course, that's just one of the many frightening things happening in this country, the government is banging a drum now making noises that expats should be able to be deported if they criticise the government...
Of course it's all in the name of tough anti-terror laws, never mind that we have never been a target, that they already introduced a swath of crazy laws after september 11 (that have never been used, although how could we ever know?) and now they want more.
Then there's the national ID card, the secret searches, the fact that Australian security forces used more wire taps last year than the entire United States, this in a country of 20 million, i could go on and on.
The icing on the cake? The government now runs both houses of parliament, we are currently in a one party state and just one month after gaining total political power they are already seeking to expand their powers to frightening lengths, the media refuse to perform their duty, with the government dangling changes in media ownership laws to become like the US like a carrot, there is no questioning happening.
It all scares the absolute *hell* out of me, fortunately people are starting to ask questions, it was actually talked about at a family get together last week, my family is definatey not one to talk politics, they all seemed to see the laws for what they are and none were impressed, so maybe there is hope yet.
Anyway, ten years ago, you simply would have been called a kook if you stated that there would ever be a secret police force in this country, and well, here we are...
So your saying that the republicans shouldn't be blamed because they have caved in where the democrats didn't?
Seriously, that's what you've just said in that post.
Sometimes i wonder if you lot would *ever* condem your partys actions, then i read posts like yours and think "no".
(I am not an american)
Re:Windows programming is purposely vague..
on
Visual Studio Hacks
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· Score: 1
Hmm, I offer at least my anecdotal evidence that it has been far easier to find relevant information when programming for linux than Windows and you offer what to support your rant?
I just did a search for "windows programming" vs "linux programming", the first few results for windows were books, commercial sites (get used to dozens of blinking ads when you lookup at windows resource sites) and some obscure sites that have little relevance.
"Linux programming" on the other hand returns informative guides, overviews and various cook books and bibles.
Plus your assertation that there is more Windows programmers than *nix programers is rediculous. Every organisation I have ever been in, the Windows team is about 1/4 the size of the *nix team working on backend custom apps (like 99% of programmers in the world do).
Of course the fact that you write for a Windows programming site (one of the gems in the Windows world) doesn't colour your opinion at all does it?
Slashdot Mirror
Holy mother of all that is good and holy...
If that graph is real i think you can precisely pinpoint the year that the reasonable moderate citizens lost control of your country to the extremists.
I've put a great deal of thought into Television recently.
The little picture box that people leave on for the majority of their leisure time, the box that gives the ruling class a direct link into our homes and minds, the box that i would say is most dangerous when it's left on in the background, not actually being watched. Exposing each individual to thousands of hours of propaganda in its truest form, (Orwell wrote that all writing is propaganda, i think that could be expanded to cover TV). Working in the backs of peoples minds slowly over the years and decades forming our beliefs and attitudes.
It also seems to have become some sort of holy symbol, you have those that 'escape' the cult, who are then scorned and looked on as kooks and mistrusted by those who are left behind(of course some people who free themselves from any vice can be a bit self-righteous) but overall there is a feeling of distrust towards those that are no longer captive, i know because i remember a number of times in my life feeling just that towards people who have simply stated they dont watch TV.
I personally dont write from a position of righteousness, my family have TVs, the TV is the centre of our living room and is on for most of the night. Lately though my mind has been rebelling, anger rises withing me at the lies, the manipulation and deviousness. My anger and frustration not only applies to news and current affairs programs, but to the fictional programs that always have a some insipid moral lesson or are outright propaganda.
For me now the sweetest relief is the thought of unleashing a fury upon the front of our big screen with my sledgehammer. I have found myself watching less, and the less i watch the more i find myself simply unable to watch. My mind seems to be emerging from some sort of numbness, i can't explain it, i assume others have felt this way and there is more articulate people than me who may be able to describe what i mean. I can more clearly identify the lies and subversion that was invisible to me not so long ago. I've also begun reading again, it seems to be sharpening my mind, i have started to truly understand the book '1984', the pollution of language giving an inability to describe abstract constructs, it is very real to me. I find myself often struggling to find words and descriptions for ideas that my subconcious mind has started putting forward into my concious mind lately.
These are my thoughts, perhaps i'm just a little strange : ).
Is there a bot on this site that posts stupid mindless two line replys to peoples posts?
It seems to be written something like this:
Perhaps if you actually read my post it I quite clearly made out my position on ILLEGALY breaking into a computer and copying its files. Doing so will see in a very real concrete and steel barred prison.
The crime you have committed isn't neccessarely theft in the traditional sense.
Either your going for the 'quick & witty' mod, or you're stupid, perhaps both?
Plus i dont have a social security number, so copying it would be a bit hard. But if i understand correctly it's not exactly hard to get anyway given the prevalence of its (mis)use in your country.
"See the difference?"
I saw a difference before your post, but now i'm just confused. That's a pretty crazy leap you made to get to your conclusion.
Lets try and make things simpler and see where we end up?
Copying is illegal?
No, distribution is illegal. Therefore it wasn't anything to do with copyright infringement, so both you and the GP are misguided.
Copying files after breaking into a network is stealing?
No that's just copying files after breaking into a network, a different crime i would imagine (it may be theft but not in the sense that your post makes it out to be).
Breaking into a network breaks various laws, copying files after breaking into a network *is* probably against some law or another but its not 'stealing' in a reasonable sense i.e you haven't taken something away from the victim. Although now that i think about it reasonable people will say that if someone copies some private file they have taken something (data) that's not theirs to take, so i guess as usual nothing is simple.
Could it be something else?
Unauthorised copying?
Unauthorised access?
Or perhaps copying data that you gain access to illegally is just a part of any overall legislation that deals with computer crime.
Conclusion
I really don't know.
But it's probably not so 'simple' as your post makes it out to be (in its roundabout way).
Copying files is not illegal in the copyright sense.
Copying files after breaking into a machine/network is undoubtably against the law in most countries.
It may be deemed theft, but not in the sense that you stole a cow or car. More like theft of trade secrets (is there such a thing?).
The End.
Which deal would that be?
Did my wife accept "the deal" when she bought her husband one of those 'minidisc thingamajigs' that she thought he would like? Was she made aware of the fact that they are beyond useless, that it would eventually end up residing in the bottom kitchen draw because of the pain it causes when six months worth of extremely slow and painful cd ripping using the crappy proprietry Sony software goes straight down the drain when said software randomly decides that it wont open the encrypted music files anymore?
I don't mind, you'll get ripped off eventually and nobody will care because "YOU ACCEPTED THE DEAL", though undoubtably you will squeal like a stuck pig, putting the fact that that you ever forwarded this view out of your mind.
"Sometimes it's gets pretty stupid around here"
You've done your part to make sure of that.
That was pretty weak effort mate, i was kind of hoping for better.
Liberal? lol, communist? wtf? North Korea? wtf are talking about?? you display you absolute ignorance about the world by using the word 'liberal' like some sort of insult. The elected party of my country are 'liberal', in fact that's their name, 'The Liberals' man you're stupid.
Also just wondering how you reconcile the fact that most prominent 'democrats' in your country have served, while pretty much none of the republicans have? How does it feel to be a footsoldier for a bunch of idle rich and nancys?
Hmmm,
A hired gun, mercenary if you will, espousing morality.
Interesting...
Ack,
Typical mindless American flag waving drek.
NOBODY HAS STARTED A WAR WITH YOU IN OVER 50 YEARS.
Vietnam did not declare war on you, Cambodia, Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Brazil, they didn't ask you to get involved in their affairs, yet YOU DID ANYWAY and as usual royally screwed their countries in the process. Because when America gets involved it does so only when it benefits America. That's OK, if you've been asked, but don't come to us screaming how altruistic you are when your unwanted meddling causes vast amounts of suffering.
Posts like the parent typically get modded up on this site, the yanks don't like anybody else criticising their countries actions. It's perfectly A-OK for them to sit around discussing which countries elected leader they should murder next, which country, that has *never* done a single THING to them, they should invade next. But the moment someone in the world dares to raise a single criticism of the USs past actions, oh the world is just-so-mean, how dare we forget the good deed that America performed over sixty years ago, by a generation that is nearly dead. Forgetting that If everyone had of just layed down arms America would have been SCREWED. Lets just forgot the millions of dead russians, tens of thousands of Poms, Aussies and every other nationality that shed their blood (you know the WORLD part in WORLD WAR), the americans did it all! That absolves the current and future generations of every atrocity (yes turning reasonably stable countries into savage thirdworld dictatorships IS an atrocity) that they ever commit from then on.
You want to extend the 'GPs arbitrary limit' Lets extend it, 100 years ago in the Phillipines, what you fuckers did there is as bad as anything any other shitty country has country has done, so don't play the oh we the poor martyrs of the world just try to do good and nobody loves us. AMERICA PEACEFUL? SITUATION YOUR NOW IN, THE SITUATION THAT YOU CREATED WHEN YOU INVADED ANOTHER COUNTRY?? fuck me i just can't even go on, its FUCKING CRAZY reading shit like this, do you actually believe it or do you just suspend reality to be mindlessly nationalistic.
You, America, have *well and truly* cashed in the reputation that your involvement in WWII gained for your country.
One last thing, we all know it's a good thing that Americans have finally started to acknowledge that there is one other land mass in the universe besides America, but it's time to graduate first grade and move to second grade where you will be taught that there is *many* land masses and that not everyone is European or North American. In fact you are in the minority, so before you call someone a "European socialist" (apparently an insult?) make sure that they are actually from Europe yeah?
(See other people can be smug and sarcastic too, nice isn't it?)
"No, it's because our knowledge builds on top of the last generation's knowledge, and along with writing those ideas down, humanity's knowledge base becomes exponentially larger."
Or in other words, people are no more intelligent now than 100 years ago, they just have a greater amount of knowledge to tap...
Hang on a minute, thats *exactly* what the OP said, so why the sarcasm?
I wonder if 100 years ago people were so quick to show off how 'witty' they are that they misinterpreted other peoples words as much as people do now?
Oh dear,
It's unfotunate that the recent trend of comments on slashdot is as follows:
Someone makes a clear easy to understand statement, respondant totally misrepresents the original argument with a smug possibly prewritten rant.
Let me make it simple for you as it seems your reading comprehension is lower than most.
Original post: I'm a big banging highflying executive, i don't want to pay for software, these nerdy geeks make some good software but damn it it doesn't have the shine that a multimillion dollar corp with 500 employees working eight hours a day has. This is simply unacceptable.
Reply: Thats because it's a hobby for those nerdy geeks. (Rhetorically states that if he wants it for free thats what he gets)
You: I totally miss the point, and obviously have an axe to grind. That hobbiest doesn't know whats best for him, he must be trying to sell that labour, oss geeks dont understand business because i say so, i will also make wide generalisations about a loosenit group of individuals trying to making myself look superior to 'all those oss people', unfortunately displaying my mindless need to group everyone into nice neat categories.
Reply: Once again a clear statement that reasonable people grok....
You: Grinding this axe till there ain't nothing left, and again misrepresenting, reference the rhetoric of the original poster you replied to as though it was a statement of opinion and then mix in a bag of common cliques.
OSS has continued to increase in popularity despite the constant 'oss nerds should make enterprise software and shut their pie hole' rantings like yours. I've watched for years as every time an oss story is posted, theres th obligitory "oss won't succeed unless blahblahblah", well it *is* succeeding and the same attitudes prevail now as have always prevailed, in fact it i would say it's probably worse now than five years ago, so you fail it.
Oh and your reference to the imaginary oss developer bitching about a commercial entity cloning his "unpolished" app is a strawman.
Cheers
Oh i don't know, when you're face to face with a set of 20 foot waves about to unload a few hundred tonnes of water on your head, the only help you can expect is from yourself. No government department, "safety net", charity, family or friends to lean on. Just your primal fear and weak and puny flesh and bone versus the full fury of the ocean.
Most surfers understand personal responsibility better than anyone else.
Oh you mean 'internet surfing', well can't help you there ;).
More like some sort of skuttle-machine, perhaps he should change his nick to 'machine of endless slashdot editing' or something similarly as snappy and hip.
Sixteen hours of endless frontpage slashdotige, can nothing stop the man?
Dude,
Thats no laptop bag, that sounds a lot like a chicks handbag, or should i say it?
A manbag!
It's sad that some seem to get turned on by the thought of government authority commanding and murdering civilians en masse in civil emergencies. Usually fanatical movie watchers who get excited when someone "takes command" and overides those arcane "civil liberties".
It's not impossible to deal with civil unrest without massacering large groups of people.
They're your own countrymen, the thought of your own military killing even one of them "for the greater good" should make you squirm with conflict, and at best only be grudgingly accepted into your thoughts as an acceptable thing to happen on your own soil. Instead you seem almost turned on by the thought.
I'm glad you don't live near me...
Of course then there is the thought of who modded up an obviously disturbed persons thoughts.
"Two in the gut and let them roll around in water that's been filtered through a few hundred dead bodies. Infection and the sun will take them in a day or so, and they'll suffer like they deserve."
Your countrymen...
Slashdot, normal thoughts, for authoritarians.
(To those who will flame away "you support poeple raping babies and puppies and and and" no i don't. What happens happens if they get shot then, thats that, but that doesn't mean i mentally masturbate over the thought of people being murdered by their own military like the parent poster seems to).
"or Canada (9 months of waiting for a mammogram)."
You're being lied to, well maybe not lied to, but you allowing yourself to be misled, and you're trying to mislead others.
I live in Australia, we have nationalised health care. We also have private health care if you want it (though every one i know that has it usually end up in the public hospitals anyway when they have something go really wrong).
I've been in and out of hospital 5 times in the last two months with a recently diagnosed low risk heart condition, it will be fixed in an operation next month. Thats three months from when i initially passed out. This is a non life threatening condition and i'm in the state that is assumed to have the worst care in Australia (Queensland). If i went to Sydney i could of had it done this month, but it's not really a problem so i'll wait.
Immediate cost to me $0.
I broke my leg three years ago, One week in hospital, an eight hour operation, titanium bar in my leg and pysiotherapy.
Immediate cost to me $0.
Obviously it is not free, i pay $650p/a in my taxes as a medicare levy as does anyone who earns over $52,000p/a. The average cost for private health insurance is $1000p/a and you still have to fork over thousands if you actually need anything reasonable done.
I've received world class treatment in our public hospitals, Quick efficient and no problems outside of the norm, some doctors not listening carefully etc,etc...
See the good thing about the internet, it lets you hear and talk to other people about their experiences in their countries. Understand me, the US is *NO* better than here, thats not that its bad, its very very good, just like here. The major difference is that here i don't have to *worry* about getting sick or something going wrong, i know that i will get top class healthcare no matter my situation, and there will be not a $100,000 bill at the end of it. I know this from my own, my family and my friends experiences, this is in contrast to what you have "heard" by talking heads and 'pundits' about those evil nationalised health care coutries.
Even if you were correct in what your implying (which you're not), there's horror stories in every large system in the world that deals with people, funnily in this country the American system is used as the example of what we most definately don't want.
Oh well, what would i know i'm just a citizen living in a country that understands that there is more to life and society than profit motive for business.
lol,
Going for the +5 patriotic mod today eh? To bad you failed. You do realise it's the GGPs "snide" comments about other countries offering aid that makes so many of you yanks look like assholes.
The countries that do give aid don't carry on about it you see, we give quietly and humbly, all the while shaking our heads while Americans screams from the top of their lungs "LOOK OH LOOK AT HOW GRACIOUS WE ARE, SUCH MARTYRS WE ARE EVERYONE BOW DOWN BEFORE OUR GENEROSITY AND FOREVER TELL US HOW MAGNIFICENT WE ARE".
As i read through your post i am vindicated in mine,
"we should stay the hell out and let the suffer, since they never help out, it's always us with the pocketbooks open, sucking away funds that could be used on our own internal matters."
Do you see how pathetic you come across? you are not special, you give no more or less than any other western democracy, so please, give it a rest ok?
As for the rest of your rant,
1. Timing
I didn't bring it up FOOL, an American, one of your infaliable countrymen thought little enough to politicise it while his countrymen are dying, remember? the post i responded to? clown.
2. Envy, embarrasment, etc
Me envious of you? lol.
Of course you posted anonymously, not me, so i would say it's you who is embarrassed.
3.My own country,
My own country, Australia, will have already offered help, it would not have called a press conference to do so, see "humbleness" above.
4. Crazy rant about American political imperialism
LOOOL
Thanks for the laugh.
"For starters, why isn't there a shell that emulates the windows CMD? As useful greps / finds / pipe chains are, they can't match the simplicity of a DIR /S. I've been using MS-DOS for more than 15 years, moving to Linux is restarting everything from scratch. Is that really NECESSARY?"
/S even more so considering the R stands for recursive, what does "S" represent?
For starters, ls -lR is just as simple as DIR
Secondly, it sounds like you want Linux to become Windows so you don't have to learn anything. Sorry mate, you're in the tech field, you're expected to learn difficult stuff once in awhile. Thats why you get paid more than the Janitor.
I have used Windows for years, since 3.1, i am an win2k MCSE for goodness sake. Yes it was hard learning the ins an outs of Linux, not because it's unintuitive, but because it a totally different way of doing things, it was hard learning Windows as well, i remember spending semesters in highschool being taught how to use Windows, Word, Excel (also Wordperfect and some crazy command line text editor). Once learned, i found it's faaaar easier for me to get my work done using KDE than it ever was or ever could be in Windows.
If you step away from Windows for a year then go back you will understand that the transition from Linux or OSX or whatever -> Windows is *just* as difficult as the transition to Windows -> Linux or OSX or anything else, unfortunately it takes the patience of learning something new to be able to do this. Patience is something people don't have these days.
So you're saying you need it?
Well, we all just assumed the "greatest country in the world(tm)" would be capable of taking care of an internal natural disaster itself, i mean my lowly country can and does every year, but if you can't...
I'm sure us "less fortunate" countries who are so envious of your great and powerful country can scrape together some small amount of charity if you really need it.
Of course in the great tradition of the US of A, if you accept our charity we get to meddle in the affairs of your country forever. Ok?
Kind of a typical yank, 'There's two countries in the world, The great US of A and that little one, umm Europe or something. So i'll base all of my arguments on that." The world is much bigger than you seem to be able to imagine.
As long as you keep your moral indignation to the left hand lane you, me and about 90% of the rest of the driving public who are still capable of deciding that depending on the conditions 5-10 km/h over the posted limit is acceptable should get along juuust fine...
I'm not sure what to make of you saying speeding = exhaust fumes = lives? Are you making an anti-pollution argument? Because if you are your statement is deceptive, cars, trucks and busses have differing ranges where they are at peak efficiency depending on gearing, engine size and aerodynamics, rarely does it fall exactly on the speed limit. Also if the speed limit is 60km/h and i "speed" and do 63km/h and that costs lives, then doing 100km/h on the highway must be absolutely genocidal.
Perhaps you haven't thought this through? Best stick with the tried and true method of "think of the children".
A constant barrage of government propoganda asserting that speed cameras are perfectly reliable has dulled peoples outrage of the fact that "blackbox" style machines are generating a massive amount of money for state governments.
There has been major incidents where;
1. In victoria many cameras were proven to be faulty, showing trucks, busses and old beat up cars doing absolutely rediculous speeds.
2. Just now 180 speed cameras in Queensland have been withdrawn, because they are faulty.
3. Speed camera operators have been shown regularly ignoring the usage guidelines and parking in spots that will provide improper results, near signs, suburban areas where there a metal garage doors in the line of sight of the radar, on corners, etc.
How many people have lost their licenses because of faulty cameras, or been hit with massive fines? (in NSW it's $1400 for 40km/h over the limit). I mean if you're a young mail (under 30) you wouldn't have a hope in hell of disputing one of these, the judge would laugh you out of the courtroom.
As another poster mentioned many states have these operations outsourced to private companies, private companies with profit as a motive to fine people. I would enjoy hearing the rabid free marketeers argue that that having a private company with little oversite and no accountability to the average person is superior in this case.
Finally for some fun reading, it does read a bit "there out to get us", but the information and statistics seem reasonable. Showing that speed cameras have done very close to nothing in Australia to prevent road deaths.
Umm, I think using the word "revolutionised" is probably as over the top as claiming Linux running KDE or Gnome or whatever will "take over" the desktop market.
My iBook (which is downstairs that i use every night), is no more or less revolutionary, better or worse than my PC that i use everyday that runs KDE.
Both have things i love and rant about, that are new and different, both have things that shit me to tears.
The difference? When i get shitty at KDE, or some OS application i think "It's free and look at the awsome stuff it does". When i get shitty at OSX, i think, "ooohh look the MIGHTY OSX being a pain in the arse, whats that? I need to spend *more money* on yet another stupid shareware application to perform some inane task like putting my iPhoto library into a different place?"
Revolutionised indeed, a revolution would be holographic projectors that can read my thoughts or some awesome shit like that, little bouncing icons and an automatic window organiser is *not* revolutionary.
(Sorry, just bitter after wrestling with OSX for a few hours yet again).
There a lot of stuff going on today that wouldn't have been believed even *10* years ago.
My own country (Australia) has just taken a turn for the worse with the government posing to give powers to security agencies that are simply authoritarian.
The power that they seek (and will get) is faaaaar beyond anything that the US or the UK currently have. I can only imagine that ten years ago if you had of said that in this country, in ten years, a secret police whose employees cannot be identified under penalty of prison can haul ANYONE they want off the street for up to three months without telling anyone and with out *any* civilian oversite. That person no longer with the to remain silent, faces up to five years in prison if they choose not to speak, cannot contact family or friends and can only contact a lawyer if they know the lawyers name, and even then the lawyer can be denied at the agents discretion, the lawyer is also not allowed to tell any one where they are. Anybody ten years ago would have laughed "not in this country" they would have said.
Of course, that's just one of the many frightening things happening in this country, the government is banging a drum now making noises that expats should be able to be deported if they criticise the government...
Of course it's all in the name of tough anti-terror laws, never mind that we have never been a target, that they already introduced a swath of crazy laws after september 11 (that have never been used, although how could we ever know?) and now they want more.
Then there's the national ID card, the secret searches, the fact that Australian security forces used more wire taps last year than the entire United States, this in a country of 20 million, i could go on and on.
The icing on the cake? The government now runs both houses of parliament, we are currently in a one party state and just one month after gaining total political power they are already seeking to expand their powers to frightening lengths, the media refuse to perform their duty, with the government dangling changes in media ownership laws to become like the US like a carrot, there is no questioning happening.
It all scares the absolute *hell* out of me, fortunately people are starting to ask questions, it was actually talked about at a family get together last week, my family is definatey not one to talk politics, they all seemed to see the laws for what they are and none were impressed, so maybe there is hope yet.
Anyway, ten years ago, you simply would have been called a kook if you stated that there would ever be a secret police force in this country, and well, here we are...
Wait,
So your saying that the republicans shouldn't be blamed because they have caved in where the democrats didn't?
Seriously, that's what you've just said in that post.
Sometimes i wonder if you lot would *ever* condem your partys actions, then i read posts like yours and think "no".
(I am not an american)
Hmm, I offer at least my anecdotal evidence that it has been far easier to find relevant information when programming for linux than Windows and you offer what to support your rant?
I just did a search for "windows programming" vs "linux programming", the first few results for windows were books, commercial sites (get used to dozens of blinking ads when you lookup at windows resource sites) and some obscure sites that have little relevance.
"Linux programming" on the other hand returns informative guides, overviews and various cook books and bibles.
Plus your assertation that there is more Windows programmers than *nix programers is rediculous. Every organisation I have ever been in, the Windows team is about 1/4 the size of the *nix team working on backend custom apps (like 99% of programmers in the world do).
Of course the fact that you write for a Windows programming site (one of the gems in the Windows world) doesn't colour your opinion at all does it?