I also think it won't work, but for a different reason.
The solution offered in the essay can be gamed. Not only that, it would open a new industry of gaming facilitators, or brokers. Gaming the system would only require that a third party (i.e., the broker) provide incentive (e.g., money?) for the chosen raters to vote a certain way. Raters who want to make a few bucks would basically be selling their votes by having the highest paying broker tell them how to vote. As soon as the proportion of bought votes reaches some critical value, the entire system would begin to implode.
I only read the top level article (no links) and came away with the distinct impression that this is some marketing luser's idea of how to tap into the OSS market. The high sounding goals alluding to open source philosophies together with an unrealistically compressed roadmap smells fishy. They've got nothing to lose and maybe they will sell a few $350 phones after the second month of the roadmap. If it really goes well, they will get a lot of free coding expertise from the OSS community.
I'll admit the whole area of mobile, hand-held computing is one of my many areas of ignorance. With that in mind, please excuse me if I'm off-base.
I've also been using Google docs for a while now. Not the word processor, but the spreadsheet s/w. It suffices, but there are limitations that I would not be able to live with for most spreadsheet needs. For example, no simple way to address a full column or row, no way to do range intersections, no range naming, etc. I've lost data on more than one occasion when the backend lost contact with the server. It reverts back to the previously auto-saved version. I use it for one reason now: keeping track of billable time. I can live with the limitations in this case because I need to access it from several computers in several locations. Evenso, I may soon move the spreadsheet to openoffice.org and use a thumb drive for portability.
A good thing about the article is that it made me realize there may be a better alternative in ThinkFree.
ESR, et al, believes the ability to play codecs such as these is so vital to the 2008 world domination deadline, that we should put up with these binary blobs. For a while, at least.
OSS doesn't remove tie-in, it adds more. Rather than being tied to a single company, OSS may be tied to more than one company and/or a large population of independent developers. So OSS removes the single point dependency.
I'm not excusing them. I'm saying it's not a battle worth fighting. The gov't collects data all the time that we should not even want to see, e.g., intelligence, until it's useless for national security. So your rule does not always apply.
In this case, your rule probably does apply. We should see it, but it just isn't worth fighting for.
My main problem with the article is that it's a typical elitist media article. The first sentence reveals the attitude that the masses are too dumb to make a good decision without information they think would be important. I don't automatically assume that because some reporter/analyst says something is important that it must be worth fighting for.
>Who are you to say what kind of information we should or shouldn't find more valuable?
A nobody expressing an opinion. Isn't that what we do here?
I don't think the difference in service reliability would persuade me to change.
>What if...? What if...? What if...? What if...?
Obviously, the "objective" source of information would benefit you, since you might be forced to move to a place full of poor, stupid people with only one place to work. If I was forced into such a situation, figuring out how to leave would be a higher priority than figuring out which phone service edges out the others in reliability.
Sure, the FCC is probably wrong, I just don't think that the information is as important as the article suggests and that other decision factors are more important.
FTA: Consumers have no idea how reliable their cell phone service will be when they buy a phone and sign a long-term contract.
This blatant over generalization is contradicted by...
FTA: Complaints about cell phone service are near the top of every list of consumer gripes. The Illinois attorney general's office, for example, last year ranked cell phone complaints as the fourth-most-common complainComplaints about cell phone service are near the top of every list of consumer gripes. The Illinois attorney general's office, for example, last year ranked cell phone complaints as the fourth-most-common complain...
People talk. They aren't just complaining to the authorities, either. As a result, everybody knows spotty service is an issue when they decide on *any* service provider. Caveat emptor is understood, so we move on to other decision factors. A much more significant factor is the family/friends connection. If the majority of the people I will be calling are on service X, I'm going with service X, even if service Y is more reliable, because service X will likely be lower cost.
I think this article is an attempt to enrage the masses because MSNBS is angry at being rejected by the FCC. It's a troll.
Have you ever felt the sensation (i.e., deja vu) start, then while you're telling someone, "Hey, this has happened before," you start feeling like you've had this same episode of deja vu before. You end up in a tail recursion of deja vu about deja vu about deja vu... I'm sure it has never happened to me, because I'm still sane. Just wondering if it's happened to you...hmmm?
You know...markets and conversations...never mind.
It seems to me that the answer lies with people of the same type and caliber as those who made open-source what it is. We don't know them, yet. They may not know who they are or what they will become. However, over the next few years they will distinguish themselves. They are the guys and gals who see the challenge represented in jamie's post and immediately start thinking of it with some unique perspective. Then they will think some more, and think and think. Then they will start doing some seemingly small thing to address what they've been thinking about. Then they will do some more, and do and do. Before long, something none of us watchers ever dreamed of will take form and become the solution to some piece of the challenge. We will all think it was so obvious. Nonetheless, the thinkers and doers who find the solutions will be the next Linus, Rob McCool, or Larry Wall.
For this reason, I'm not sweatin' it. I know the people who will solve the challenge are out there waiting for the opportunity, or actually, working on the solution already. I'm looking forward to what the next future looks like.
Since January 2002, Microsoft has put a stronger emphasis on protecting PCs by attempting to implement stable, secure code into Windows XP and their new operating system. This latest report from Symantec brings attention to Microsoft's trustworthy computing campaign, and shows how it will be a long way before it is ready for the mainstream.
Since I don't normally like to engage in the karma-damaging activity of trolling, I was hoping to get some bang-for-the-buck out of my post. Thus, I left two juicy pieces of bait (i.e., grammatical errors) in my post, and promptly started meta-moderating my heart out to counter the impending down-mod.
BTW, "my particular dialect" must mean english is an auxiliary language for you. Kudos on that and never apologize for the occasional mess-up. I am not among those who are multilingual, so I envy you.
Sorry I wasn't more clear. I originally intended to say, "It's big...big big..really big" Would you then have recognized it as a Barney Fife quote? Yes, I'm a TAGS fan. No, I'm not a Yankee in the remotest sense.
Slashdot Mirror
In case your interested, the article is really a review of rPath, a virtual appliance builder based on a custom tailored gnu/linux...
I also think it won't work, but for a different reason.
The solution offered in the essay can be gamed. Not only that, it would open a new industry of gaming facilitators, or brokers. Gaming the system would only require that a third party (i.e., the broker) provide incentive (e.g., money?) for the chosen raters to vote a certain way. Raters who want to make a few bucks would basically be selling their votes by having the highest paying broker tell them how to vote. As soon as the proportion of bought votes reaches some critical value, the entire system would begin to implode.
I only read the top level article (no links) and came away with the distinct impression that this is some marketing luser's idea of how to tap into the OSS market. The high sounding goals alluding to open source philosophies together with an unrealistically compressed roadmap smells fishy. They've got nothing to lose and maybe they will sell a few $350 phones after the second month of the roadmap. If it really goes well, they will get a lot of free coding expertise from the OSS community.
I'll admit the whole area of mobile, hand-held computing is one of my many areas of ignorance. With that in mind, please excuse me if I'm off-base.
I've also been using Google docs for a while now. Not the word processor, but the spreadsheet s/w. It suffices, but there are limitations that I would not be able to live with for most spreadsheet needs. For example, no simple way to address a full column or row, no way to do range intersections, no range naming, etc. I've lost data on more than one occasion when the backend lost contact with the server. It reverts back to the previously auto-saved version. I use it for one reason now: keeping track of billable time. I can live with the limitations in this case because I need to access it from several computers in several locations. Evenso, I may soon move the spreadsheet to openoffice.org and use a thumb drive for portability.
A good thing about the article is that it made me realize there may be a better alternative in ThinkFree.
So they won't explode or catch fire. How long will it be before some dreaded danger arises that we haven't imagined? It is nanotechnology, after all.
mood/pessimistic (yeah, I read the myspace post.)
If you are from the ESR tribe you will see this as a positive step towards world domination.
r ld-domination-201.html
http://catb.org/~esr/writings/world-domination/wo
ESR, et al, believes the ability to play codecs such as these is so vital to the 2008 world domination deadline, that we should put up with these binary blobs. For a while, at least.
Lindows is supposed to be working on this also.
I'll buy that.
I kind of regret my previous post anyway, after the seeing the filth that followed it.
Yeah, I'm a prude and proud of it.
OSS doesn't remove tie-in, it adds more. Rather than being tied to a single company, OSS may be tied to more than one company and/or a large population of independent developers. So OSS removes the single point dependency.
> I was under the impression that libertarians were the embodiment of capitalism.
Another reason for anti-capitalist, libertarian nerds to sit down and shut up. They are obviously confused.
Kidding again, of course.
This is just another example of how M$ is good for the economy. All you anti-capitalist, libertarian nerds can sit down and shup up, now.
Kidding, of course.
I'm not excusing them. I'm saying it's not a battle worth fighting. The gov't collects data all the time that we should not even want to see, e.g., intelligence, until it's useless for national security. So your rule does not always apply.
In this case, your rule probably does apply. We should see it, but it just isn't worth fighting for.
My main problem with the article is that it's a typical elitist media article. The first sentence reveals the attitude that the masses are too dumb to make a good decision without information they think would be important. I don't automatically assume that because some reporter/analyst says something is important that it must be worth fighting for.
>Who are you to say what kind of information we should or shouldn't find more valuable?
A nobody expressing an opinion. Isn't that what we do here?
I don't think the difference in service reliability would persuade me to change.
>What if...? What if...? What if...? What if...?
Obviously, the "objective" source of information would benefit you, since you might be forced to move to a place full of poor, stupid people with only one place to work. If I was forced into such a situation, figuring out how to leave would be a higher priority than figuring out which phone service edges out the others in reliability.
Sure, the FCC is probably wrong, I just don't think that the information is as important as the article suggests and that other decision factors are more important.
FTA: Consumers have no idea how reliable their cell phone service will be when they buy a phone and sign a long-term contract.
...
...
This blatant over generalization is contradicted by
FTA: Complaints about cell phone service are near the top of every list of consumer gripes. The Illinois attorney general's office, for example, last year ranked cell phone complaints as the fourth-most-common complainComplaints about cell phone service are near the top of every list of consumer gripes. The Illinois attorney general's office, for example, last year ranked cell phone complaints as the fourth-most-common complain
People talk. They aren't just complaining to the authorities, either. As a result, everybody knows spotty service is an issue when they decide on *any* service provider. Caveat emptor is understood, so we move on to other decision factors. A much more significant factor is the family/friends connection. If the majority of the people I will be calling are on service X, I'm going with service X, even if service Y is more reliable, because service X will likely be lower cost.
I think this article is an attempt to enrage the masses because MSNBS is angry at being rejected by the FCC. It's a troll.
Have you ever felt the sensation (i.e., deja vu) start, then while you're telling someone, "Hey, this has happened before," you start feeling like you've had this same episode of deja vu before. You end up in a tail recursion of deja vu about deja vu about deja vu... I'm sure it has never happened to me, because I'm still sane. Just wondering if it's happened to you...hmmm?
You know...markets and conversations...never mind.
It seems to me that the answer lies with people of the same type and caliber as those who made open-source what it is. We don't know them, yet. They may not know who they are or what they will become. However, over the next few years they will distinguish themselves. They are the guys and gals who see the challenge represented in jamie's post and immediately start thinking of it with some unique perspective. Then they will think some more, and think and think. Then they will start doing some seemingly small thing to address what they've been thinking about. Then they will do some more, and do and do. Before long, something none of us watchers ever dreamed of will take form and become the solution to some piece of the challenge. We will all think it was so obvious. Nonetheless, the thinkers and doers who find the solutions will be the next Linus, Rob McCool, or Larry Wall.
For this reason, I'm not sweatin' it. I know the people who will solve the challenge are out there waiting for the opportunity, or actually, working on the solution already. I'm looking forward to what the next future looks like.
...it feels like the future is closer than I thought
The future can be no closer than the next Planck moment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_time), unless you have a new discovery you would like to share;-)
Aarrg! Who swapped the Preview and Submit buttons?
Since January 2002, Microsoft has put a stronger emphasis on protecting PCs by attempting to implement stable, secure code into Windows XP and their new operating system. This latest report from Symantec brings attention to Microsoft's trustworthy computing campaign, and shows how it will be a long way before it is ready for the mainstream.
This reminds me of the secret language I've read/a> supervisors have when discussing sub-par employees.
Yep, it is. Congrats, you win the prize: a PS3 running Vista. This offer expires in 30 days.
Microsoft will continue to meet all Winternals customer support agreements through their terms.
was probably supposed to read
Microsoft will continue to meet all Winternals customer support agreements, but on their terms.
the same typo occured in several places.
<bashful_grin>Just trying to be helpful.</bashful_grin>
Hehe. Thx for the bite. Yes Virginia, persistence does pay;-)
Your being too kind.
Since I don't normally like to engage in the karma-damaging activity of trolling, I was hoping to get some bang-for-the-buck out of my post. Thus, I left two juicy pieces of bait (i.e., grammatical errors) in my post, and promptly started meta-moderating my heart out to counter the impending down-mod.
BTW, "my particular dialect" must mean english is an auxiliary language for you. Kudos on that and never apologize for the occasional mess-up. I am not among those who are multilingual, so I envy you.
Regards.
I've got in the habit now when reading slashdot of if I can't understand a post, reading it as if i was speaking it.
Didja read or speak this before posting? Improper verb usage, mangled propositional phrase, missing punctuation.
FTR, I'm not a grammar nazi, but you, by claiming such, opened you'reself up for a little good-natured criticism.
Regards.
Sorry I wasn't more clear. I originally intended to say, "It's big...big big..really big" Would you then have recognized it as a Barney Fife quote? Yes, I'm a TAGS fan. No, I'm not a Yankee in the remotest sense.
BTW, the south WILL rise again.
Smart tags, dumb research.
Impossible. Andrew Tannenbaum did the research:)